Students are introduced to base-ten blocks including unit blocks, ten rods, hundred flats, and thousand cubes and are reminded that 10 unit blocks equal 1 ten rod, 10 ten rods equal 1 hundred flat, and 10 hundred flats equal 1 thousand cube. An image and description explicitly show a large cube with a 10x10x10 configuration representing a thousand (1000). The materials repeatedly use these blocks and the 10x10x10 cube to illustrate scaling by tens.

Students build rectangular prisms using exactly 16 centimeter cubes and are instructed to use all cubes with no holes or cubes sticking out. Students are asked to make different-length, -width, and -height prisms with those cubes and to share and compare their constructions. The wrapping-up statement tells students that the different prisms they created "each had the exact same volume," connecting the cube-packing activity to the idea of volume.

Students are instructed to create rectangular prisms by adding and removing individual cubes using the online interactive tool, and the instructions state that "every time you add a cube to the prism, you're changing the prism's volume." The Things to Know and Student Activity pages identify "cubic units" and state that "Volume is measured in cubic units." The Parent Plan and later notes recommend modeling rectangular prisms with centimeter cubes and say students will model prisms using cubes both on paper and with concrete cubes.

Students build rectangular prisms with centimeter (unit) cubes and are instructed to measure volume by counting those cubes; the Skills list explicitly includes "Measure volume by counting unit cubes." Activity 2 requires students to make prisms using a specified number of centimeter cubes (e.g., 4, 8, 12, 20, 24) and record dimensions for prisms that have the same number of cubes. Activity 3 and related sheets have students color and count cubes in one layer, count layers, multiply layer count by number of layers, and write volumes in cubic units (e.g., "cm3").

Students physically build solids with centimeter unit cubes (the opening task asks for the largest cube possible with ≤24 centimeter cubes, and Activity 1 has students use 24 centimeter cubes to make rectangular prisms). Students count or infer the number of unit cubes and record volumes in cubic centimeters (the activity table and answer key list volumes as 24 cubic cm and other examples). Activity 2 has students observe that multiplying the three integer edge lengths gives the same number as the count of unit cubes (l × w × h = V), and the wrapping up explicitly states that a rectangular prism can be divided into cubic units.

Students build a rectangular prism from 24 centimeter cubes and are told its volume is 24 cubic centimeters. Students view 3D grid illustrations and cards made of unit cubes and either count cubes or use the dimensions to compute volumes, labeling answers in 'cubic' units. Activities ask students to compare counting cubes to using the formula l × w × h and to sort cards that show prisms, dimensions, and corresponding volumes in cubic units.

Students are instructed to use centimeter cubes to make three different rectangular prisms that have a volume of 20 cubic cm and to share their work, directly tying volume to a count of unit cubes. In Activity 4 students create an L shape using centimeter cubes and are told to "Count the total number of cubes to find the total volume," then break the shape into prisms and add their volumes to confirm the count. Throughout the activities answers are given and recorded in cubic units (e.g., cubic cm), reinforcing that volume is measured by the number of unit cubes.

Students compute volumes for several rectangular prisms and label results in cubic units (e.g., Diego: 20 × 20 × 15 = 6,000 cubic in.; Danielle: 10 × 10 × 10 = 1,000 cubic in.). Problem 4 explicitly asks for the greatest number of 1 cm cubes that fit in a prism with base area 24 cm² and height 7 cm, and the answer key states V = 24 × 7 = 168 "centimeter cubes." The materials instruct students to write volumes as cubic units (word form or exponent form) and use V = b × h and V = l × w × h to connect multiplication to volume counts.

Students are explicitly asked to "measure volume by counting unit cubes" in the Skills list and to "Determine the volume of a rectangular prism by counting cubes" in the review checklist. Multiple student activity pages require students to count cubes in stacked/cube diagrams and record answers in cubic units, and Section 1 of the Unit Test directs students to "Count the cubes to determine the volume," with answer-key values given as n cubic units. The review activities also include an interactive tool to fill prisms with cubes and matching cards that group representations with the same volume, reinforcing the idea of volume as a count of unit cubes.

Students build solid rectangular-prism buildings from boxes or paper prisms and are instructed to measure length, width, and height in centimeters. Students use the formula V = l × w × h (and V = b × h) to compute volumes and record volumes in cubic centimeters (cm3). Students also combine volumes by adding volumes of non-overlapping prisms for buildings made of more than one box.

Students label dimensions and compute volumes using the formulas V = l × w × h and V = b × h on multiple problems (e.g., 8×4×5 = 160, 3×6×1 = 18). Students record and interpret answers in cubic units (examples: 125 cubic cm for a 5×5×5 cube, 1,000 cubic cm in the table). Students also find volumes of composite prisms by decomposing into smaller rectangular prisms and adding their volumes (example yielding 78 cubic in.).