Learning about size can be a tricky concept for children but it’s an important strategy and thinking skill for kindergarten readiness. Young children need lots of experiences and opportunities to play with and figure out sizes. Building a snowman, with real snow, playdough, or even paper circles is fun and uses big, medium, and small.
Size is all about relationships, rather than the bigness or smallness of something. A child’s play table can be small, but it’s pretty big when compared with doll-house furniture. A sweater can be too big for a baby or too small for an older brother or sister but the sweater hasn’t changed it’s size at all.
Kids themselves are small when compared with big brothers and sisters, but are big next to babies. Size is more than just learning words, although that is part of it. There’s the challenge of comparing two or more things. No wonder it takes practice to understand how size works.
When kids make a snowman with real snow, it’s easy to see and feel big, medium, and little. Instead of real snow, playdough will work, although it’s not as exciting. With snowmen, there’s the added element of putting the sizes in order.
If grownups cut the circles out for kids to put together, make sure the sizes are quite different. Or kids might want to draw one. Good thing it’s easy to see that the big one goes on the bottom, the medium in the middle, and the small one on top. Once the snowman is done, kids can add the details. Rocks are bigger than buttons, but are much smaller than the even the small head. What size are the eyes, and mouth, and nose? Even if there isn’t any snow, where you live, can your child make a snowman for some fun and learning about sizes?