A Mud Cake
Written by Jane Buxton
Illustrations by Kelvin Hawley
The Story
Zolar and Zina
make a runny
mud cake.
Introduction
• Talk about when we use a container to measure something such as
a spoon for jam, a cup for water. Show them how to measure water
using a large spoon, a cup, a jug and a bottle. Ask the children to
estimate how many spoons of water it will take to fill the cup. Children
experiment with measuring and counting.
• Introduce the story A Mud Cake.
Discuss with the children how many of the different things used for
measuring they think will fill each container (on page 2).
How many spoons do you think will fill the cup?
• Introduce the children to the language of capacity – fill it up, full, not
full, empty, half full, half empty.
Read the story together.
• As you read the story, ask the children if they think each container
is full or nearly full. Ask them to estimate how many smaller containers
will be needed to fill each larger container. Explore the meaning of fill
and full.
How do we know when a container is full?
• Turn back through the pages of the book. Look at each container and
ask the children to say how many smaller containers were needed to fill it.
• Retell the story. Use real containers and measuring instruments.
Follow-up Activities
Process
• Estimating
quantities with nonstandard containers
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Making Mud Pies
Ask the children if they have ever made mud pies. How did they make
them? Provide sand and water in a water tray for children to try making
mud pies. Each child makes a pie in a paper cup. The children decorate
the pies with twigs, leaves and flowers. Children write a sentence about
how they made their pies.
The Tea Party
Place the children in groups. Provide a teapot, jugs, teaspoons, cups for
the numbers in each group, saucers, rice and bowls for a tea or breakfast
party. Children work out how much tea they need to make.
How many cups does the teapot hold? Do they have enough cups for saucers? Do they have enough rice for every bowl?
Role-play the tea party.
© Wendy Pye Publishing Ltd 2011
Using the Online Activties
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3
Activity 1 – Level Guess Game
Number Cruncher and the children take turns guessing what level the
water will reach when it is poured into another container. The closest to
the correct level wins.
As a follow-up, provide a collection of containers and ask the children
to say which of any two containers holds more than the other. Test the
responses with a standard measure such as a cup.
Activity 2 – Which Holds the Most?
Put the containers in order, from largest to smallest. Estimate how many
cups of soup is in each container.
As a follow-up, make stone soup. Provide the children with a recipe to
make pretend soup, and ask them to think of a name for it.
Activity 3 – Mmm Milkshakes!
Guess how many measures of milk will go into each of the containers.
How many milkshakes can you make?
Children draw their favourite flavoured milkshake. Cut out the pictures
and glue them onto a chart.
Which is the most popular flavour?
Rhyme – Here is a Spoon
Children illustrate this rhyme to make a poster. Write the rhyme
underneath. Children take home a copy of the rhyme to share.
Other Activities
Fill It Up
Provide five different containers (ice-cream container, bowl, bucket,
small jug and bottle with a funnel), sand and three measures (a cup,
spoon and small jug). Ask the children to estimate how many cups will
fill the bucket. Record the estimates on a chart and then ask the children
to measure to find out how close they were. Repeat this exercise with all
the containers and measures.
Maths Concept
Estimating and
measuring quantity
using non-standard
units
Maths Language
more or less
full
half full
empty
level
holds
container
How Many?
Talk with the children about how to share so everyone gets the same
amount of something (lemonade, ice cream).
Use a litre bottle of water and disposable cups. Ask the children to
pour the water into eight cups so that each cup holds the same amount.
Try the same exercise with scoops of sand or rice from an ice-cream
container. Children use measures and containers to practise sharing out
a given quantity evenly amongst a group.
© Wendy Pye Publishing Ltd 2011
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