Times Observer photo by Stacey Gross Sarah Harvey and Morgan Alexander enjoy their Gallon Man exercise.

“The first time we did it,” said Adon Maier of the Gallon Man exercise, “I didn’t know what a pint was. But now I know.”

Gallon Man has arrived at St. Joseph School.

The school, which offers a half hour each week of additional math instruction to third, fourth, and fifth graders, has been focusing on measurements with its third-grade classrooms.

The extra instruction this year comes from Teresa Abplanalp. But it’s been going on for about the past five years, third-grade teacher Sally Hunter estimates. The great thing about the extra time to concentrate on math skills, Hunter said, really gives kids an opportunity to prepare themselves for the math requirements when they enter public school in grade six.

“Reports from public schools,” Hunter said, “say our kids are really on the ball.”

The extra instruction is considered a special program at St. Joseph School, similar to gym or art, according to third-grade teacher Pam Nasman.

“We have the luxury of having a teacher come in,” said Nasman, adding that the activities presented during special math instruction offer an opportunity to reinforce lessons through self discovery.

“When they have to do it themselves,” said Nasman, “it’s starting to make sense.” The idea is to make the lesson memorable through more than just worksheets. “They’re going to remember this years from now more than a worksheet,” said Nasman.

Students have spent the past month learning about measurements, and last week were able to experiment with measurements using water and containers. On their own they figured out how many cups made a pint, how many pints made a quart, and how many quarts made a gallon

Now the image of Gallon Man, whose core is made of a gallon unit, arms and legs made of quarts and pints, and fingers and toes made of cups.

On Tuesday, students were asked to recreate their own gallon man by cutting out 16 cups, eight pints, four quarts and one gallon piece, but they were able, said Nasman, to self-style the faces of their Gallon Men, to make the assignment memorable and meaningful to them.

“They could make Gallon Men or Gallon Women,” said Nasman.

Morgan Alexander, for one, spent the better portion of Tuesday morning making a Gallon Dog.