TEKS 4.8C · Grade 4

Measurement word problems

Length, time, liquid volume, mass and money problems: reading a scale, adding up distances, working out when something ends.

The standard itself reads: “4.8C: solve problems that deal with measurements of length, intervals of time, liquid volumes, mass, and money using addition, subtraction, multiplication, or division as appropriate”

One of them, worked all the way through

1. Work out what ONE space is worth first: 200 divided by 4 is 50 mL.
2. Three spaces are filled, so one plant gets 3 x 50 = 150 mL.
3. Six plants: 6 x 150 = 900 mL.

This is one way, not the only way. The printable shows the same question worked more than one way, because children get there differently.

What usually goes wrong, and what helps

Each of these is a different misunderstanding rather than a slip, so each one needs something different. Find the one that sounds like your kid.

The student counts the lines on a scale instead of working out what one space is worth

Lines are not units. Ask what one SPACE is worth before counting anything.

The student answers for one of something when the question asked for all of them

Read the last few words again. “In all” means every plant, not one of them.

The student takes the only number printed on a container as the amount inside it

The 200 is the top of the beaker, not the amount sitting in it.

The student loses an hour when the minutes add past sixty

Sixty minutes is a whole hour. When the minutes run past sixty, the hour has to move up.

Try this at home

Hand them a measuring jug with only one number written on it and ask how much is in it. Working out what one line is worth is the whole skill, and it is the step most kids skip.

What’s in the printable

Four questions on this skill, two to a page. The rest of the file is for the adult: an answer key, a worked solution for every question, and teacher pages on what each wrong answer means. 10 pages in all.