Description
What our Rectangular Prism Volume lesson plan includes
Lesson Objectives and Overview: Rectangular Prism Volume teaches students how to find the volume of a rectangular prism. At the end of the lesson, students will be able to find the volume of rectangular prisms using the correct formula in both mathematical and real-world contexts. This lesson is for students in 5th grade.
Classroom Procedure
Every lesson plan provides you with a classroom procedure page that outlines a step-by-step guide to follow. You do not have to follow the guide exactly. The guide helps you organize the lesson and details when to hand out worksheets. It also lists information in the blue box that you might find useful. You will find the lesson objectives, state standards, and number of class sessions the lesson should take to complete in this area. In addition, it describes the supplies you will need as well as what and how you need to prepare beforehand.
Options for Lesson
Included with this lesson is an “Options for Lesson” section that lists a number of suggestions for activities to add to the lesson or substitutions for the ones already in the lesson. All of the suggested adjustments for this lesson relate to the lesson activity. For the activity, you could provide your students with several different measurements for Santa’s bag and ask them which bag he should carry for all the gifts. You could also allow your students to bring in their own “present” (an empty box) ahead of time and wrap those boxes for your students to measure. Finally, you could have your students determine how big of a sack Santa would need for all those presents!
Teacher Notes
The teacher notes page includes a paragraph with additional guidelines and things to think about as you begin to plan your lesson. This page also includes lines that you can use to add your own notes as you’re preparing for this lesson.
RECTANGULAR PRISM VOLUME LESSON PLAN CONTENT PAGES
Rectangular Prism Volume
The Rectangular Prism Volume lesson plan includes two content pages. Volume is how much space there is inside of an object. For example, it’s the amount of air in a balloon, the amount of water in a swimming pool, or the amount of hot chocolate in a mug.
All 3-D (three dimensional) objects have volume. The three dimensions are length, width, and height. Volume is always measured in cubic units, which are abbreviated in writing to units³. When written this way, you say “units cubed,” with cubed meaning that the object has three dimensions. For example, in.³ is inches cubed, ft.³ is feet cubed, and yds.³ is yards cubed.
Rectangles have two sets of parallel lines, but they’re only 2-D (two dimensional). Rectangular prisms are 3-D, with two parallel and congruent rectangular sides.
Rectangular Prism Formula
Formulas are facts or rules used in math to determine the answer to a problem. The formula for finding the volume of a rectangular prism is length times width times height: V = l*w*h. To find the volume of an object, substitute each value into the formula and multiply.
Let’s look at an example of a rectangular prism with a length (l) of 6 m, a height (h) of 4 m, and a width (w) of 3 m. First, write the formula: V = l*w*h. Next, substitute the values for the variables: V = 6*3*4. Finally, multiply: V = 6*3*4 = 18*4 = 72 m³.
Let’s look at another example of a rectangular prism with a length (l) of 10, a height (h) of 2, and a width (w) of 5. First, write the formula: V = l*w*h. Next, substitute the values for the variables: V = 10*5*2. Finally, multiply: V = 10*5*2 = 50*2 = 100 units³.
RECTANGULAR PRISM VOLUME LESSON PLAN WORKSHEETS
The Rectangular Prism Volume lesson plan includes three worksheets: an activity worksheet, a practice worksheet, and a homework assignment. You can refer to the guide on the classroom procedure page to determine when to hand out each worksheet.
SANTA’S PRESENTS ACTIVITY WORKSHEET
The activity worksheet asks students to measure several “gifts” (empty boxes) using a ruler. They will then find the volume of each present and answer question about how big Santa’s sack would need to be to carry all of the gifts.
FINDING VOLUME PRACTICE WORKSHEET
For the practice worksheet, students will find the volume of each rectangular prism.
RECTANGULAR PRISM VOLUME HOMEWORK ASSIGNMENT
The homework assignment asks students to find the volume of different objects in their house. They will use a ruler to measure each object in inches, rounding to the nearest whole number. They will also sketch and label each object.
Worksheet Answer Keys
This lesson plan includes answer keys for the activity worksheet, the practice worksheet, and the homework assignment. If you choose to administer the lesson pages to your students via PDF, you will need to save a new file that omits these pages. Otherwise, you can simply print out the applicable pages and keep these as reference for yourself when grading assignments.
