Volume Misconceptions and Misunderstandings

Volume is a math concept that I look forward to teaching. There are so many hands-on activities you can do and and real-life examples you can share. 

I noticed that some of my students in intervention had a misunderstanding about volume and its formula. They used the formula for figures that were not complete prisms. So, we discussed and sorted different figures into two categories. 

I  made different figures using connecting cubes. As we sorted, we applied the formula to find the volume of the complete prisms. For the incomplete prisms, we counted the cubic units.  I also had students create their own figures.

We discussed the word 'layer' and worked on visualizing cubic units behind others. We talked about how some layers have the same number of cubic units and other layers did not. We talked about layers that you might not be able to see on a paper and pencil test.

Here's our finished sort. All you need for this activity are cubes! Hope this helps you with volume!