As I learn more about the methods of Dr. Maria Montessori, I am understanding the great deal of importance she placed on children being able to discriminate between items using their senses. A while back I created a simple Montessori-inspired printable to help my kids work on matching and ordering items by size. My kids are beyond this activity by now, but I wanted to share it for my readers with younger kids who may benefit from this simple matching and ordering by size activity.
I cut straws into segments from 1″ to 6″ long and asked XGirl to match the straw segments to the lines on a printable worksheet I created (download link at end of post).
After she completed this task, we talked about which was shortest and which was longest.
An extension to this activity would be to have your child re-do the ordering part of the activity without using the printable.
If you don’t have straws, this activity can be done using string, paper strips, or any other material that you can cut into short segments.
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More resources for teaching math
More math activities from Gift of Curiosity:
- Building a 3D rainbow measurement activity
- Adding with chain links
- Venn diagram sorting practice
- Teaching combinations of 10
- Estimating an apple’s circumference
- Introduction to probability
- Math practice with numbered dice
- Put the numbers on the clothesline
- Road numbers
For more activities, resources, and printables for teaching math, see my Math Activities for Kids page and my Math Pinterest board.
Thanks for sharing! I like the idea!
The kiddos really enjoy these measuring activities and they get it! Thanks for sharing.
Thank you for this – I have downloaded the printables and will be setting this up for my children to do this week.
Thank you also for linking up to Tuesday Tots and just to let you know that I will be featuring this over on Rainy Day Mum this week.
Thanks Cerys, I hope your kids enjoy!