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Lesson plan Grade 4 Health & Consumer Science

Field Day Coolers at Falconer Elementary: Cups, Quarts, Gallons

A grade 4 measurement lesson where students build gallon-to-quart and gallon-to-cup tables to plan how many servings the field day water coolers can pour.

Objectives

  1. Students will express gallons in quarts and cups using a two-column conversion table.
  2. Students will decide whether a cooler holds enough water for a class by comparing cups needed with cups available.

Vocabulary

Key words: gallon, quart, cup, conversion table

Teacher overview

Planning water for a hot field day is a genuine health task: someone must figure out whether the coolers hold enough for every student to drink. In this lesson the fictional Falconer Elementary is preparing for field day, and students use measurement conversions to answer the planning questions. A common misconception at this grade is mixing up quarts and cups, which leads students to multiply by 4 when they should multiply by 16, and the two separate tables in this lesson are built to keep the conversions apart.

Procedure

Hook (5 min): Hold up the one-gallon jug and the one-cup measure. Ask students to guess how many of the small cups would fill the jug. Record several guesses, then set the jug aside with the promise that the class will settle it with a table rather than a pouring contest.

Direct instruction (10 min): On chart paper, build a two-column table for gallons and cups. Start with the fact that one gallon equals 16 cups, then fill rows together: 1 gallon is 16 cups, 2 gallons are 32 cups, 3 gallons are 48 cups, 4 gallons are 64 cups. Point out how each row adds another 16. Compare the finished table with the hook guesses.

Guided practice (10 min): In pairs, students build the second table for gallons and quarts, starting from one gallon equals 4 quarts and completing rows for 1, 2, and 3 gallons. Formative check: ask each pair to explain aloud why the quart numbers grow by 4 while the cup numbers grow by 16; listen for the idea that a quart is the larger unit, so fewer of them fill a gallon.

Independent practice (15 min): Students complete handout questions 1 through 4, using their two tables as references. Pairs who finish early can check question 3 with addition, adding 26 twos instead of multiplying.

Closure and exit ticket (5 min): Question 5 on the handout is the exit ticket. Collect it, and note which students extended the quart table correctly past the rows built in class.

Field Day Coolers at Falconer Elementary: Cups, Quarts, Gallons — Grade 4 Health & Consumer Science
Name: ____________________________ Date: ______________

Student Handout

Suppose Falconer Elementary is setting up water coolers for field day. Use your conversion tables. Show your work.

  1. One gallon equals 4 quarts. The red cooler holds 4 gallons. How many quarts of water is that?
  2. One gallon equals 16 cups. The yellow cooler holds 5 gallons. How many 1-cup servings can it pour?
  3. The 26 students in Room 9 will each drink 2 cups of water during field day. How many cups will Room 9 drink in all?
  4. A small cooler holds 48 cups of water. Room 9 needs 52 cups. How many more cups does Room 9 need than the small cooler holds?
  5. Exit ticket: One gallon equals 4 quarts. How many quarts are in 5 gallons?

From Water for Schools (waterforschools.org). This material is in the public domain (CC0) and may be copied, edited, and shared freely.

Answer Key
  1. Answer: 16 quarts.
    Each gallon is 4 quarts, so 4 x 4 = 16 quarts in the red cooler.
  2. Answer: 80 cups.
    Each gallon is 16 cups, so 5 x 16 = 80 one-cup servings from the yellow cooler.
  3. Answer: 52 cups.
    26 students times 2 cups each is 26 x 2 = 52 cups.
  4. Answer: 4 cups.
    Room 9 needs 52 cups and the cooler holds 48, and 52 - 48 = 4 more cups.
  5. Answer: 20 quarts.
    5 gallons times 4 quarts per gallon is 5 x 4 = 20 quarts.

Differentiation

Support

Let students keep both class tables in front of them with the rows labeled, and provide a highlighter so they can mark which table a question needs before computing. For question 3, permit repeated addition in place of two-digit multiplication.

Extension

Ask students to add a third column to their table for pints, using the fact that one quart equals 2 pints, and then to state how many pints fill the 4-gallon red cooler and show the reasoning in two steps.

ELL supports

Pre-teach "gallon," "quart," and "cup" with the real containers from the materials list, letting students handle each one and order them by size. Post a labeled photo strip of the three containers next to the tables so the unit names stay attached to the objects during independent work.

Extensions

Have the class plan a full field day: with four classrooms about the size of Room 9 attending, students estimate the total cups needed, convert to gallons using their tables, and recommend how many 5-gallon coolers the school should fill. Groups present their recommendation in one or two sentences and defend the math behind it.