Not all roles available for this page.
Sign in to view assessments and invite other educators
Sign in using your existing Kendall Hunt account. If you don’t have one, create an educator account.
This Warm-up prompts students to compare four objects made of cubes. It gives students a reason to use language precisely (MP6). It gives the teacher an opportunity to hear how students use terminology to talk about the characteristics of the items in comparison to each other. During the discussion, ask students to explain the meaning of any term they use as they describe the orientations of the objects and the number of cubes in each and reason about their configurations.
This is the first time students experience the Which Three Go Together? routine in grade 5. Students are familiar with this routine from a previous grade, however, they may benefit from a brief review of the steps involved.
For all Warm-up routines, consider establishing a small, discreet hand signal that students can display to indicate they have an answer that they can support with reasoning. This signal could be a thumbs-up, a certain number of fingers that tells the number of responses they have, or a different subtle signal. This is a quick way to see if students have had enough time to think about the problem. It also keeps students from being distracted or rushed by hands being raised around the class.
Which 3 go together?
The purpose of this activity is for students to recognize that objects with the same volume take up the same amount of space. The word bigger is intentionally vague to elicit ideas about length, width, and height and encourage students to reason about the number of cubes.
Monitor for the language students use to explain their choices, such as “longer,” “wider,” and “taller,” or a reference to the number of cubes. Students may choose to use connecting cubes to build the objects to compare and clarify their arguments (MP5). As students discuss and justify their decisions, they have opportunities to create viable arguments and critique each other's reasoning (MP3). The discussion and comparison of students' arguments help illustrate the need for precise mathematical vocabulary and prepares students to learn the meaning of volume (MP6).
Which is bigger? Explain or show your reasoning.
Which is bigger? Explain or show your reasoning.
The purpose of this activity is for students to build solid objects and compare them by their volumes. Students count the number of cubes in each object and may recognize that the shape and the orientation of the object doesn’t matter when comparing volumes. Encourage students to build any object in which the cubes connect, not just rectangular prisms.
If there is extra time, students could draw their objects on dot paper (blackline master). It is not an expectation that students use the dot paper, but some students may like to try representing their objects with it.
“Today we built objects out of cubes and compared them by the amount of space they take up. We call this an object’s ‘volume.’”
Display the images from the activity or the objects made from cubes:
“How are the two objects the same?” (Both are made from 8 cubes. There are four cubes next to each other on the bottom layer.)
“How are the two objects different?” (One object is a cube and the other looks like a tower. One object is taller than the other.)
“These two objects look different, but take up the same amount of space, that is they have the same volume.”
Math Community
Display the math-community chart.
“Today we explored volume and compared the solid objects that our group built. What does it look and sound like to do math together as a mathematical community? What was I doing? What were you doing?” (We talked to each other and to the teacher. We had some quiet time to think. We shared our ideas. We thought about the math ideas and words we knew. You were writing down our answers. You were waiting until we gave the answers.)
Add students’ responses to the “Doing Math” column of the chart.