Liquids in Containers

1st grade has been exploring liquids over the past few weeks.   We have learned the properties of liquids: bubbly, foaming, transparent, translucent and our favorite...viscous! We also know that liquids take the shape of their container.

So what happens when water is poured into four different sized containers?  We used a small vial to measure one scoop of water in each of the containers.  Then we drew where the water level was.  

The funnel helped get the water in the bottle.

That's one scoop of water!

Drawing the level of the water in the bottle.

Getting a good look at the water level.

Being as accurate as possible.

Next, everyone made a prediction about where a second scoop of water would reach in each of the four containers then added the scoop of water to see if they were right! 

It's easier to use your chair as a desk, so your
journal doesn't get wet!

How many scoops of water?

Will the water overflow?

The last part of the investigation was to think about whether all four containers had the same amount of water in them and to explain your reasoning.  Many of the students acknowledged that the containers were different shapes so the water looked different; some of the students stated the containers had the same amount of water because we used the same measurer for each of the containers; and others said there were different amounts of water in each container.