Scales are needed to carry out the activities on this worksheet which concentrates on using grams and kilograms. For measuring in grams ordinary kitchen scales are fine. Again, before measuring make an estimate. This is where cooking really comes into its own for maths activities. Measuring out ingredients for cakes, weighing pasta etc, measuring the amount of water to cook rice in – the list is endless.
More difficult is weighing in kilograms. Here a set of bathroom scales is better – but make sure they are using metric and not imperial measures. A good practical example is to weigh a suitcase before travelling abroad to make sure that it is under the baggage limit.
Warning: take care and supervise whenever weighing heavier items.
The second worksheet looks at measuring capacity in litres and millilitres. A measuring jug or measuring cylinder is needed for this. Again cooking is ideal.
If you do not have a measuring jug then it is still possible to measure water using a set of metric scales. Remember; one litre of water weighs 1 kilo. So 500ml of water weighs 500g. What a superb system of measurement!