Lesson 2

Measure Volume

Lesson Purpose

The purpose of this lesson is for students to understand that volume is the amount of unit cubes that fills a space.

Lesson Narrative

Students are introduced to rectangular prisms as they begin to informally use the structure of rectangular prisms to find the number of cubes in the prism. In previous grades, students learned to measure area by counting unit squares, decomposed a rectangular region into rows and columns, and multiplied the number of unit squares in a row by the number of rows or the number of unit squares in a column by the number of columns. Similarly, in this lesson, students make use of the layered structure in a rectangular prism to count the cubes in a more systematic way (MP7). Students will have many opportunities to count the number of cubes in rectangular prisms in lessons 3 and 4 before the introduction of formulas in Lesson 5.

Math Community

Tell students they will have an opportunity to revise their “Mathematical Community” ideas at the end of this lesson, so as they work today they should think about actions that may be missing from the current list.

  • Representation

Learning Goals

Teacher Facing

  • Find the volume of solid figures, including rectangular prisms, in unit cubes, in a way that makes sense to them.
  • Understand that volume is measured in unit cubes.

Student Facing

  • Let’s count cubes.

Required Materials

Materials to Gather

Required Preparation

Activity 1:

  • Each group of 2 needs 24 connecting cubes.

Activity 2:

  • Each group of 2 needs 16-24 connecting cubes.

CCSS Standards

Lesson Timeline

Warm-up 10 min
Activity 1 15 min
Activity 2 20 min
Lesson Synthesis 10 min
Cool-down 5 min

Teacher Reflection Questions

What did students understand about the volume of solid objects as they came into the lesson? In what ways did their understanding of volume change upon completing the lesson?

Suggested Centers

  • Can You Build It? (3–5), Stage 3: Rectangular Prisms (Addressing)
  • Can You Build It? (3–5), Stage 2: Multiple Rectangles (Supporting)
  • Capture Squares (1–3), Stage 7: Multiply with 6–9 (Supporting)

Print Formatted Materials

For access, consult one of our IM Certified Partners.

Additional Resources

Google Slides

For access, consult one of our IM Certified Partners.

PowerPoint Slides

For access, consult one of our IM Certified Partners.