Volume and Capacity Worksheets: Year 6

Year 6 maths worksheets on volume of cuboids and estimating capacity: 36 questions in three levels (All, Most, Some) with answers. Free PDF.

7-page A4 PDF from the Tiger Shark Education question bank. All: Estimate capacity with sensible units. Most: Know which solids have volume length × width × height. Some: Work out the volume of a cuboid. Each level is two pages of six questions, each with its own diagram and space for working, and the last page has every answer, with short working for multi-step questions. Each level is also available as its own 3-page PDF. Example questions from the Some level: Work out the volume of this cuboid. (5 cm × 4 cm × 2 cm) / Work out the volume of this cuboid. (8 cm × 2 cm × 5 cm).

What is volume? Volume is the amount of space a 3-D object takes up, measured in cubic units such as cm³. The volume of a cuboid is length × width × height. Capacity is how much a container holds, usually measured in litres or millilitres (1 cm³ = 1 ml). Year 6 pupils calculate and compare volumes and estimate them.

Common mistakes and tips: Children often add the dimensions instead of multiplying, or confuse volume with surface area. Building cuboids with cubes and counting them shows why the formula works. Units matter: answers need cm³ or m³, and pupils should be careful when the dimensions are in different units.

In the KS2 SATs, this topic can appear on the arithmetic paper, on the two reasoning papers, or both. Reasoning questions often wrap the skill in a context or ask children to explain an answer, so the three levels on this sheet build from fluency to the kind of problem pupils meet in the test.

Ways to use it: whole-class differentiation (three levels for the same lesson), focused intervention for children working towards the expected standard, homework, or targeted revision before the SATs. Set one level as a quick assessment and use the answers to decide who needs another lesson on the topic.

Building fluency over time: revisiting this topic little and often throughout the year, rather than only in one unit, helps children retain it for the SATs. A few questions from the All or Most level make a good retrieval starter several weeks after the topic was first taught.

Use All for children working towards the expected standard, Most for secure Year 5 skills and Some for SATs-standard practice: three entry points to the same lesson. Suits whole-class differentiation, intervention groups, homework and SATs revision, and upper KS2 generally.

Part of a set of 42 Year 6 maths topics.