Solve Word Problems Involving Liquid Volume and Mass

Students apply all four operations to solve word problems involving liquid volumes (liters, milliliters, gallons, quarts, pints, cups, fluid ounces) and masses (kilograms, grams, pounds, ounces). Students convert units as needed and represent solutions with equations.

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Grade 4 · Measurement Word Problems · question 1 of 3

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20 rungs. A star at the top.

Sana has a 400-milliliter bottle of glue and a 250-milliliter bottle. She uses 175 milliliters on a project. How many milliliters of glue remain?

How it is taught

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Volume and mass problems need matching units first.

Then you add, subtract, or share.

Read it: Same unit first, then jump

A trail is 1 km and then 275 m. Change 1 km to 1000 m first. Then jump 275 on from 1000: the trail is 1275 m.

Write every amount in the same unit: the smaller one.
Start at the first amount on the line.
Jump on to add, or jump back to take away, and read where you land.

A kilometer and a meter are different sizes, so 1 and 275 cannot be added as they are.

1 km is 1000 m, so both amounts are then counted in meters.

The jumps show the amounts added or taken away, and the landing is the answer.

Change to the smaller unit, then add or take away.

Adding 1 + 275 = 276, as if the units were the same.

1 km is 1000 m. 1000 + 275 = 1275 m.

A tub holds 12 L. 5 L are poured out. How much remains? — 7. 12 − 5 = 7 L.

2 L − 800 mL

A 2-liter jug is full of juice. We pour 800 milliliters into a glass. How much is left in the jug?

Two liters and 800 milliliters — those are different units. To subtract, we need them to match.

Remember: 1 liter is 1000 milliliters. So 2 liters equals 2000 milliliters.

Now our problem is 2000 milliliters minus 800 milliliters.

Let's count up on a number line. We start at 800 and want to reach 2000.

First jump: from 800 up to 1000. That's two hundred.

Next jump: from 1000 all the way to 2000. That's one thousand.

Add the jumps: two hundred plus one thousand is twelve hundred.

1,200 milliliters of juice are left in the jug. Nice work!

Grade 4 · Subtracting volumes across units

What you see

While they climb, your page writes one true line to ask about tonight, and a short note each Sunday.

MayaGrade 3 · Mathematics

Did you know?

A chessboard has 64 squares — share them out between the 8 rows and each row holds exactly 8.

Today’s goal: 1 star — one skill mastered, every rung of its ladder climbed
Climbing now: Divide within 100

An example student.

MayaGrade 3 · Mathematics

Maya earned 2 stars this week — Interpret multiplication as equal groups, which took 6 answers over 3 days before its star landed 3 days ago and Multiply by 6, 7, 8 and 9. Next up: Divide within 100.

An example week.

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