Math: Measuring with Jars
... Milliliters, cups, and ounces
Glass Ball jars are an excellent resource for measuring work as part of various Practical Life exercises, such as pouring, filling a jar, washing a jar, rinsing and soaking beans, and, of course, cooking.
The pint, quart, and half-gallon sizes provide a useful set. Children can see how many pints fit into a quart and how many quarts fit into the half-gallon.
I especially buy this brand because they have been tested for contaminants and the lids are made of stainless steel. You can also buy glass fermentation tops and stainless steel mesh lids for sprouting because many people have made add-on products for these jars. I think I saw a coffee sipping lid somewhere…
Buy jars with the regular-sized mouth jars to make it easier for small hands to screw and unscrew the lids.
Presentation: No formal presentation needed. Just mention that ML stands for milliliter, a different system of measurement.
It is nice to wash a dried grain or seed that will expand, so that children can see the absorption of the water at work.
For those of you in the US, this type of early work will mean children do not first encounter the metric system when they begin science.
In the early 1970s, the US was supposed to transition to the metric system, so we all practiced the formulas for converting US measurements to metric. Of course, it was a worthless and frustrating exercise because it really does not matter, using the metric system has nothing to do with calculating the conversions (except in very tiny edge cases). The key is to have internalized the sense of size (e.g., length, weight, height, volume, etc.) when something is expressed in metric terms.
Happy measuring!