We have been investigating capacity in Crew MW. We had a number of containers on our table and had to discuss which we thought would hold the most and the least water. The only way we could find out was to investigate by filling them up!

We made our predictions before counting how many cups of water it would take to fill each container. We worked with a partner to compare the coloured pots first, we all thought that the taller pot would hold the most water.

We were correct! It held 2 cups of water, whereas the smaller pot held only 1 cup.

We then worked as a group to look at the 3 cylindrical containers. We were all very sure that the tallest container would hold the most but we were undecided on whether the thinner or the wider containers would hold the most… so we investigated it!

We were right about the tallest container, that held 8 cups of water! The container that held the least was the small, thin container – that only held 1 cup. The wider, but shorter container held 2 cups of water.

Crew MW began exploring capacity this week in maths. We looked at the vocabulary, full, empty, half full, nearly full and nearly empty and then showed what each of these words looked like with our cups and the water. We then had to find a container that would hold more and less water than our cup would. We loved exploring how much water all of the different containers could hold, and we found out that containers with holes in cannot hold water, as it all leaks out!

Some recent maths learning that has been taking place in Crew MW.

Sorting shapes – circle or triangle? We discussed what makes a circle a circle and what makes a triangle a triangle. We then used these descriptions to decide whether the shapes needed to go in the circle group or the triangle group. We then investigated items around the classroom and found examples of circles and triangles.

Finding 1 less – how do we know? We talked about finding 1 less and how this meant we would end up with a smaller amount. We created towers of 5 blocks and removed blocks 1 at a time to find 1 less than our starting number. We then checked how many were left by counting them. We got really confident as predicting what we thought 1 less than our starting number would be!

Composing 4 and 5 – how can we make different numbers? We looked at how numbers can help us make other numbers. We investigated different ways we could make the number 4 and the number 5 by putting small world pieces into 2 baskets and seeing how many were in each basket (parts) and then seeing how many we had altogether (whole). We worked really well together to talk about how we could move the pieces between the baskets, how many we had in each and then predicted our whole before using our counting skills to check our answer. We then really challenged ourselves and added a third basket!