ABSTRACT
Children are often interested in size differences of everyday objects. When learning about measuring they need to move on with their development of mathematical vocabulary and refine their understanding of ‘big’ and ‘little’. ‘Big’ and ‘little’ are comparative terms so that the same object can be ‘big’ in some contexts and ‘little’ in others. To introduce the story, begin with an interest table collection of big and little objects. This collection can include both natural and man-made objects, but include long, short, fat and thin as well as small-heavy, small-light, large-heavy and large-light objects. The maths in the addition activity could equally come from groups of objects collected by the children themselves, rather than the beans connected with this story. Children could create patterns with their beans and record the patterns they have made.
