The Gallon Guy...or Girl

I'm sure MANY of you have used the Gallon Guy/Man/Girl in your classroom. Me too! I use it to teach the awesome concept of capacity in the customary measurement system. But I do it a bit different than others because I don't use a template that is copied. I simply use half sheets of construction paper and we fold and cut to get the right amount. Everything is cut out of different colored half sheets. I (over) emphasize that all the measurements are equal to a gallon. Since each different measurement is cut out of a different colored sheet that is the same at the beginning, the students are able to see how many quarts/pints/cups are in a gallon. I don't know if I am making sense. Let me show you what I mean.

We started with 4 half sheets of different colored construction paper.

The first we left whole and wrote:

1 Gallon

=4 quarts

=8 pints

=16 cups

(no picture, sorry)

Then we took the next color, folded it into fourths, and wrote 1 quart on each fourth. Then we talked about how this is the same capacity as 1 gallon (because the papers are the same size). Then we cut it and place it on top of the gallon paper.

We did the same to the pints, but cut them in eighths :)

And then we did cups, but I didn't get a picture. Sorry.

Then we glued the dude together! The students LOvEd it!

Oh! Everyone got a "head" for their little guy that was 1/4 of a piece of construction paper. The students immediately made the connection to a half gallon. It was awesome!

And here are the finished product before I put them in the hallway. 

I love incorporating hands-on activities! How do you teach capacity?