Lesson on Volume and Fractions

We enjoyed a particularly fun two math lessons Thursday on volume and fractions. I sure have been enjoying the Montessori-based RightStart Mathematics. We didn't finish John's Kindergarten math last year, so we've been working through the last lessons this summer and he's really enjoying it.

Blue food dye in the water

We did various experiments of what differing amounts of volume looked like in the same and different glasses, what the same volume looks like in different shaped glasses, and guessing volumes.

John poured one volume into two glasses to learn about half and into four glasses to learn about quarters. Before I could nearly say one word, he explained to me, "Look! Two quarters is one half! And this is three quarters. And all four quarters is one whole!" So, I guess the illustration worked. Then we moved on to discussing quarters of time on the clock and of one hundred (money).

Bonus Viewing: Dr. Everett Piper on the Common Core Curriculum. I desire to create a mega-blog post providing information about (against!) Common Core, but haven't had time yet.