Capacity Teaching Resources

Teach your students to measure capacity (aka liquid volume) with printable worksheets and digital liquid measurement activities designed by Aussie teachers, for teachers like you!

From word problems to worksheets that help students understand capacity units of measurement, each printable and digital option in this in-depth collection of teaching resources has been created by a teacher to help students meet curriculum standards.

Each resource has also undergone a rigorous review by the teachers on the Teach Starter team to ensure they’re student-ready — so you can cut your lesson planning time in half.

New to teaching this part of the maths curriculum? Our teacher team knows what it’s like to suddenly teach a brand-new concept, so we’ve put together a time-saving refresher!

What Is Capacity? A Kid-Friendly Definition

If you're introducing capacity for the first time, having a definition that is kid-friendly can come in handy. Here's one from our teacher team:

Capacity is how much a container can hold. For example, if you wanted to know how much water you could put in your water bottle, you would need to find its capacity.

Capacity is sometimes called the liquid volume or 'volume of a liquid,' but when we're measuring capacity, you may be dealing with other states of matter too, including solids and gases.

For example, finding the capacity of a scuba diver's oxygen tank tells us how much of the gas can be stored inside the tank!

Capacity vs. Volume — What's the Difference?

You've noticed that we have used the terms 'volume of a liquid' and 'capacity' together, but capacity and volume aren't the same thing. In fact, this is a common point of confusion for many maths students!

So, let's look at the difference between volume and capacity!

Capacity

• Capacity refers to the amount a container can hold.
• Capacity describes the potential amount an object can hold — the object does not have to actually contain anything!
• Only hollow objects have capacity.

Volume

• Volume refers to how much space an object takes up.
• Volume describes the actual amount of space the object takes up, not the potential.
• Volume can be used when we are measuring both solid and hollow objects.

What Units Are Used to Measure Capacity?

Capacity is typically measured in litres or millilitres.

For example, when we buy milk from the supermarket, the bottle may come in 1 litre, 2 litre or 3 litre sizes.

How Do You Find the Volume of a Liquid?

The easiest way to measure the volume of a liquid is to fill a container —such as a graduated cylinder or beaker. Your students should learn how to read the intervals on each instrument to determine the liquid volume.

When studying this topic, students may practise reading measurement tools with single-unit intervals or those that progress by 10, 20 or 50.

Measuring Liquid Volume/Finding Capacity in the Classroom

Are you looking for some ways to help your students calculate and estimate the capacity of objects?

Perhaps you want to give your students real-life applications of when they may use capacity concepts. Along with the fun worksheets and activities in this collection of resources, the teachers at Teach Starter have a few ideas to share to get your students focused on finding the capacity of objects!

• Set up different stations that require students to measure a variety of liquids with beakers and graduated cylinders. Encourage students to read each instrument and record the amount of liquid in each.
• Set up a game with your students where they create equivalent units. For this measurement game, give each student a strip of paper with a different unit of capacity written on it. On the teacher's cue, students must find other classmates and group together in equivalent pairs.