Teaching about size in early years

November 30, 2019 Karen 15 comments

Elizabeth, who is new to child minding, has asked for some ideas for teaching children about size.

I have always had a height chart on my kitchen wall, it was a family tradition to measure my children the day before a birthday and see how much they grew that year.

I remember once when my husband was looking for some new jeans, he asked me to help him look for 30-32 waist. My son who was about 3 said. “No, daddy, you need age 40-41”

I also used to measure the children that I looked after as a registered child minder. I wrote their names beside the height and we would compare the differences, one child asked if my husband was taller than her dad; so we plotted their heights too.

Other ways that I introduced size was through toys; which is the largest vehicle, who can build the tallest tower from Lego or building blocks?

Shapes and sizes are everywhere look out for different sizes when you are out- which is the tallest tree? biggest building? etc.

I had a child with special needs who struggled with the idea of measurement read how I adapted an activity for him here

At snack time ask the children to break bread sticks and talk about who has the biggest and smallest piece.

Get the children to do some exercise, ask them to see who can stretch the highest, by standing on tip-toes and reaching their arms to the ceiling.

ichild have several free downloadable activities about size

Find them here

Compare shoe sizes with the children and read books together about size.

Draw around their hands and your hands and discuss the different sizes.

As always questions, comments and topic suggestions are welcome.

Until next time.

Karen

x


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15 Comments on “Teaching about size in early years

  1. lovely post, my kids are facsinated in size differences when it comes to themselves and other people. When my daughter was 2 she used to always catergorise everything with our family ie, everything large was daddy, everything medium was mummy and so on x x #BloggersClubUK

    1. Sounds like your daughter was a fan of Goldilocks and the 3 bears,which is a great children’s book for demonstrating size

  2. I hadn’t thought much about how confusing it must be for kids to have so many different types of measurement. I’ll certainly try to use these ideas to help my youngest before he starts school. Thanks for linking up with #globalblogging

  3. Since reading this post earlier this week I have already started to use comparative sizes with my youngest and work on types of size (tall, wide, big etc) Thanks for linking up with #stayclassymama

  4. One of the saddest parts of my mum moving house last year was leaving behind all the height marks from all of us and the grand kids and foster kids from over the years. It’s such a good way to teach chi;dren how to measure and such a cute momento to have! #kidsandkreativity

  5. Good ideas for helping children learn about measurements and sizes. We have a measuring chart on the wall which the children can use to measure their height and I remember helping the girls draw around their feet once to compare sizes. Lining up shoes is always a fun one to compare the different sizes – especially my husband’s huge shoes next to Thomas’s tiny ones! #KidsandKreativity

  6. Size! It’s so subjective. We talked to Caroline aged 2-3ish about buying a house. “You can’t do that” she said, “they’re too big.” Obviously imagining carrying one from a store in a bag!! #kidsandkreativity

    1. That’s one of the many things that I love about children the random, innocent things that they come out with, thanks for sharing

  7. Size and measurements can be really confusing for kids, but some good ideas here. We have height charts in the kids bedroom to keep track of how they’re growing! Thanks again for linking up to #KidsandKreativity

  8. My son struggles with the concept of age and size all the time. We have been working very hard to help him understand these differences. Thank you for linking up with Tell It To Me Tuesday! I hope to see you back again this week.

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