Core Skills Analysis
Math
- The child learns to understand and compare lengths by measuring the height of different brick towers, fostering early awareness of size and scale.
- Through building and measuring, the child practices counting the number of bricks, reinforcing number recognition and one-to-one correspondence.
- The activity encourages estimation skills as the child may predict tower heights before measuring and then checks accuracy, developing logical thinking.
- Using bricks as units of measurement introduces the concept of non-standard units, laying groundwork for understanding standard units like centimeters or inches later on.
Tips
To deepen mathematical understanding, encourage your child to measure towers using different tools, such as rulers or measuring tapes, to compare non-standard and standard units. Incorporate simple recording by drawing towers and labeling their heights, fostering early data collection and interpretation skills. Create challenges like building the tallest or shortest tower within a certain number of bricks to promote problem-solving and planning. Finally, use comparative language such as taller, shorter, longer, and shorter to build vocabulary that supports mathematical reasoning.
Book Recommendations
- Measuring Penny by Loreen Leedy: A charming story about a girl who measures her dog in many creative ways, introducing concepts of measurement and units.
- How Big Is a Foot? by Rolf Myller: This classic picture book explores the idea of standard units of measurement and why it’s important, using the story of the king’s shoe.
- Kitten’s First Full Moon by Kevin Henkes: While primarily a narrative, this story includes counting and size comparison as a kitten tries to catch the moon, engaging early math concepts.
Learning Standards
- Mathematics: Numbers - Count reliably up to 20 objects, recognize numerals 1 to 20 (UK Early Years Foundation Stage - Number)
- Mathematics: Shape, Space and Measure - Use everyday language to talk about size, weight, capacity, position, distance, time and money to compare quantities and objects (UK EYFS - Shape, Space and Measure)
- Mathematics: Measures - Begin to use standard units for measuring (UK Early Years Foundation Stage - Measures foundations)
Try This Next
- Create a worksheet where the child draws towers of various heights and writes down how many bricks tall each is, promoting recording and comparison.
- Set up a measurement scavenger hunt using bricks and other household items to explore lengths and heights in different contexts.