Big and small: comparing size directly
Maths · Early Years · The School
Comparing height
Stand two toys back to back. Which one is taller? Line up the bottoms so it is a fair test — a toy on a step would win unfairly. Now try it with two children, standing back to back on flat ground. Comparing directly, side by side, is the simplest way to check.
Big does not mean heavy
Hold a big empty beach ball in one hand. Hold a small stone in the other. The stone is heavier, even though the ball is much bigger. Size is about how much SPACE something takes up. Weight is about how heavy it is. They can point in completely different directions.
Ordering more than two
Line up three toys: a big one, a middle one, and a small one. Put the smallest at one end. Put the biggest at the other. Where does the middle one go? In between, of course. Ordering by size works for any number of things, not just two.
A teddy, a toy car, and a wooden block. ORDER BY SIZE: teddy (biggest), block (middle), car (smallest). Now pick each one up. ORDER BY WEIGHT: the wooden block feels heaviest, then the teddy, then the car feels lightest. The size order and the weight order are NOT the same. That is exactly why you need two different tests, not one.