Worksheet Grade 5 Health & Consumer Science
Bottle Labels for the Fernwick Field Trip: Milliliters to Liters
A grade 5 worksheet in which students convert bottle labels from milliliters to liters and back while planning drinking water for a fictional class field trip.
Objectives
- Students will convert a bottle label in milliliters to an amount in liters.
- Students will convert an amount in liters back to milliliters.
- Students will use converted amounts to find how much water a class carries on a trip.
Vocabulary
Key words: milliliter, liter, label, convert
Teacher overview
Bottle labels in the United States often report size in milliliters, while a trip plan or a coach's goal is usually stated in liters, so moving between the two units is what lets a student check whether the water in a backpack is enough. This worksheet follows a fictional fifth-grade class at Fernwick Elementary as it packs water for a day trip to a state park. Students convert labels from milliliters to liters, convert planned amounts back to milliliters, and total what the class is carrying.
Student Worksheet
Fernwick Elementary is fictional. Use this fact for every item: 1,000 milliliters equals 1 liter.
| Bottle | Label |
|---|---|
| Small | 500 mL |
| Medium | 750 mL |
| Large | 1,500 mL |
- A small bottle's label reads 500 milliliters. How many liters is that?
- A medium bottle's label reads 750 milliliters. How many liters is that?
- A large bottle's label reads 1,500 milliliters. How many liters is that?
- Junie packs two small bottles. Each one holds 500 milliliters. How many milliliters is that in all?
- Junie's two bottles hold 1,000 milliliters in all. Write that amount in liters.
- Callum packs one medium bottle that holds 750 milliliters and one small bottle that holds 500 milliliters. How many milliliters is that in all?
- Callum's bottles hold 1,250 milliliters in all. Write that amount in liters.
- There are 24 students in the class. Each student carries 0.5 liter. How many liters does the class carry in all?
- The teacher brings a jug that holds 6 liters. How many 500-milliliter bottles can be filled from the full jug?
- Rosalie's bottle holds 0.6 liter. Write that amount in milliliters.
- Write one or two sentences telling which is easier to compare at a glance, labels written in milliliters or amounts written in liters, and why.
From Water for Schools (waterforschools.org). This material is in the public domain (CC0) and may be copied, edited, and shared freely.
Answer Key
- Answer: 0.5 liter. Divide by 1,000: 500 divided by 1,000 = 0.5.
- Answer: 0.75 liter. Divide by 1,000: 750 divided by 1,000 = 0.75.
- Answer: 1.5 liters. Divide by 1,000: 1,500 divided by 1,000 = 1.5.
- Answer: 1,000 milliliters. Add the two labels: 500 + 500 = 1,000.
- Answer: 1 liter. There are 1,000 milliliters in 1 liter, so 1,000 milliliters is exactly 1 liter.
- Answer: 1,250 milliliters. Add the two labels: 750 + 500 = 1,250.
- Answer: 1.25 liters. Divide by 1,000: 1,250 divided by 1,000 = 1.25.
- Answer: 12 liters. Multiply students by the amount each carries: 24 x 0.5 = 12.
- Answer: 12 bottles. Six liters is 6,000 milliliters, and 6,000 divided by 500 = 12.
- Answer: 600 milliliters. Multiply by 1,000: 0.6 x 1,000 = 600.
- Answer: Amounts written in liters are easier to compare because they use the same unit as the trip goal, so a student can see at once whether 1.25 liters is more or less than the amount planned. Accept any answer that names a single shared unit as the reason. Also accept milliliters with a sound reason, such as whole numbers being easier to compare than decimals.
Differentiation
Support
Give these students a two-column chart with milliliters on the left and liters on the right, filled in for 250, 500, and 1,000 milliliters, so the pattern of moving three places is visible before they work items 1 through 3. Provide a labeled empty bottle and a 1-liter pitcher at a side table so the two units stay physical.
Extension
Ask students to plan a trip for a class of 30 in which every student carries at least 0.75 liter using only small and medium bottles, list how many of each bottle size the class needs, and prove the total in both milliliters and liters. Students should explain why more than one packing plan can work.
ELL supports
Pre-teach "milliliter," "liter," "label," and "convert" using two real bottles with the labels facing the class, and post the sentence frame "____ milliliters equals ____ liters." Allow students to answer item 11 orally to a partner before writing, and accept labeled number sentences for items 1 through 10.
Extensions
Students can bring in three clean, empty containers from home, record each label in milliliters, convert each to liters, and order the three containers from smallest to largest using the converted amounts. A class list of the containers gives practice comparing decimals written to different numbers of places.