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PrimaryMaths

7 of the best volume and capacity worksheets and resources for KS1 and KS2 maths

It doesn't matter whether you're a 'glass half full' or 'glass half empty' kind of person, these primary maths resources will help your students get their fill of capacity and volume…

Teachwire
by Teachwire
George's Marvellous Medicine KS1 lesson plan
DOWNLOAD A FREE RESOURCE! George’s Marvellous Medicine KS1 – Measuring & capacity
PrimaryMaths

1 | Introduce, measure and compare capacity

These activity sheets have been created to match the small steps on the White Rose maths schemes of work, with questions that include varied fluency with reasoning with problem solving, and an additional sheet with extension activities.

Children are given a variety of pictorial examples to work with and questions to provoke deeper thinking to help them with the curriculum requirements of Year 1 Measurement to “Compare, describe and solve practical problems for: capacity and volume (for example, full/empty, more than, less than, quarter, half full, half).”

There are three separate worksheets for this, so click the links for introducing capacity, measuring capacity and comparing capacity.


2 | George’s Marvellous Medicine KS1 capacity lesson plan

Can children estimate, decant and measure their way to discovering the elusive formula for George’s Marvellous Medicine, asks Jonathan Lear?

That’s the subject of this KS1 lesson plan that lets them explore measurements of capacity using standard metric units.

Download it here.


3 | Capacity and volume factsheets and worksheets

On the BBC Skillswise page for measuring capacity you’ll find a brief introductory video on the topic, plus a collection of free printable factsheets and worksheets.

These cover everything from labels, instruments for measuring capacity and non-standard measures of capacity to a matching exercise, reading scales and choosing litres or millilitres.

Check this all out here.


4 | Cover volume and capacity without pouring and filling

Looking for something a bit different? Mike Askew has ideas for teaching this topic without all the usual tricks.

Check them out here.


5 | Estimating volume for Year 5

These volume worksheets provide extra challenge for Year 5 children, with a variety of volume problems spread across three sections, enabling you to use the whole sheet during a lesson or to select specific problems for different teaching sessions.

Plus, a separate answer sheet for all sections is included.

Get this resource here.


6 | Volume of cuboids worksheet

This three-page, 12-question worksheet for upper KS2 is a quick and easy way to check pupils’ knowledge on the topic.

Get the worksheet here and the answer sheet here.


7 | Nrich capacity problems

What happens when you pour the water from one of these glasses into the other? Obvious right? Or is it? Watch the video from Nrich and explore with your class what you’ve seen.

This one is called Pouring Problem, but there are loads more volume and capacity problems to try. Here are a few of our favourites:

Or check out the full selection here.

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