Worksheet Grade 4 Math

Sycamore Flats Water Tower: A Gallons-to-Quarts Worksheet

A grade 4 worksheet at a fictional hilltop water tower where students convert gallons to quarts and cups, convert hours to minutes, and solve measurement word problems.

Grade: Grade 4
Subject: Math
Material: Worksheet
Time: 30 min
Prep: No prep
Materials: None

Standards

4.MD.A.1 Common Core Math

Know relative sizes of measurement units within one system of units including km, m, cm; kg, g; lb, oz; l, ml; hr, min, sec. Within a single system of measurement, express measurements in a larger unit in terms of a smaller unit. Record measurement equivalents in a two-column table.

How this material aligns: Items 1 through 5 convert gallons to quarts and cups and hours to minutes, and item 3 builds the two-column conversion table this standard names.

All materials for 4.MD.A.1 →

4.MD.A.2 Common Core Math

Use the four operations to solve word problems involving distances, intervals of time, liquid volumes, masses of objects, and money, including problems involving simple fractions or decimals, and problems that require expressing measurements given in a larger unit in terms of a smaller unit.

How this material aligns: Items 6 through 9 are measurement word problems about tank levels, an inspection's elapsed time, and jug filling, using the four operations on volumes and time.

All materials for 4.MD.A.2 →

Download Word file

This material is in the public domain (CC0) and may be copied, edited, and shared freely, without attribution. Updated 2026-07-23.

Objectives

Students will convert gallons to quarts and cups using multiplication.
Students will convert hours to minutes and solve an elapsed-time problem.
Students will solve measurement word problems about a water tower, including one that asks them to interpret a remainder.

Vocabulary

Water tower: A water tower is a big tank raised high above town that stores drinking water. Its height is what pushes water through the pipes, keeping the pressure steady even when the power goes out.

Also: gallon, quart, convert

Teacher overview

The fictional hill town of Sycamore Flats stores its drinking water in a tower, and the crew that looks after it measures water in different units depending on the job: gallons for the tank, quarts and cups for small tools and tests, and minutes for pump runs. This worksheet uses one workday at the tower to practice grade 4 unit conversion, always from the larger unit to the smaller one. The most common error to watch for is adding 4 instead of multiplying by 4 when changing gallons to quarts; the answer key shows the multiplication for every conversion so partial work is easy to grade.

Sycamore Flats Water Tower: A Gallons-to-Quarts Worksheet — Grade 4 Math

Name: ____________________________ Date: ______________

Student Worksheet

The water tower crew in the fictional town of Sycamore Flats measures water all day. Use these facts for every item: 1 gallon = 4 quarts, 1 gallon = 16 cups, and 1 hour = 60 minutes. Show your work and label each answer.

A worker fills a 3-gallon jug at the tower tap. How many quarts is that?
The crew flushes 5 gallons of water from a pipe into a bucket. How many quarts is that?
Make a two-column table for 1, 2, 4, and 7 gallons and the matching number of quarts. How many quarts match 7 gallons?
The crew uses 2 gallons of water to rinse a tank wall. How many cups is that?
The tower pump runs for 3 hours. How many minutes does it run?
A tank inspection starts at 9:20 in the morning and takes 45 minutes. At what time does it end?
A supply truck brings 9 crates to the tower. Each crate holds 2 one-gallon jugs. How many quarts of water is that in all?
The tank held 950 gallons in the morning. The pump added 275 more gallons. How many gallons are in the tank now?
A worker pours 26 quarts of water into empty jugs. Each jug holds 4 quarts. How many jugs are full, and how many quarts are left over?
Nadia says that changing gallons into quarts always makes the number bigger. Is she right? Explain your thinking using 1 gallon = 4 quarts.

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: 12 quarts. Each gallon is 4 quarts, so 3 x 4 = 12 quarts.
Answer: 20 quarts. 5 x 4 = 20 quarts.
Answer: 28 quarts. The table pairs are 1 and 4, 2 and 8, 4 and 16, and 7 and 28, because each gallon number is multiplied by 4; 7 x 4 = 28 quarts.
Answer: 32 cups. Each gallon is 16 cups, so 2 x 16 = 32 cups.
Answer: 180 minutes. Each hour is 60 minutes, so 3 x 60 = 180 minutes.
Answer: 10:05 in the morning. From 9:20, forty minutes reaches 10:00, and 5 more minutes reaches 10:05.
Answer: 72 quarts. First find the gallons: 9 x 2 = 18 gallons. Then convert to quarts: 18 x 4 = 72 quarts.
Answer: 1,225 gallons. 950 + 275 = 1,225 gallons.
Answer: 6 full jugs, with 2 quarts left over. 26 / 4 = 6 with a remainder of 2, since 6 x 4 = 24 and 26 - 24 = 2.
Answer: Yes, she is right. A quart is smaller than a gallon, so the same amount of water fills more quarts. Every 1 gallon becomes 4 quarts, and multiplying a whole number of gallons by 4 gives a larger number.

Differentiation

Support

Give students a reference card showing one gallon jug drawn as 4 quart bottles and as 16 measuring cups, so each conversion has a picture to lean on. Start with items 1, 2, and 5, which are single-step, and provide a multiplication chart for the times-4 and times-16 facts.

Extension

Ask students to extend the table in item 3 to 12 gallons and then to work backward: if the crew has 48 quarts, how many gallons is that, and how do they know? Have them explain how dividing by 4 undoes multiplying by 4.

ELL supports

Pre-teach "gallon," "quart," "cup," and "convert" with real or pictured containers arranged from largest to smallest. Provide a sentence frame for the explanation items: "1 gallon is the same as ___ quarts, so I multiply by ___." Allow item 10 to be answered with a labeled drawing and a short phrase.

Extensions

Have students plan a supply list for a fictional tower cleaning day: 2 gallons for rinsing, 3 quarts for the test kit, and 8 cups for scrub buckets, all written in quarts. Students convert each amount to quarts, add the total, and check a partner's list against their own.