Which Is Heavier And Which Is Lighter

Weighing and measuring items to see which one is heavier and lighter

The children at Daisykins @ Rugby have spent some time discovering more about quantities, an important mathematical milestone which is explored in some way at various ages and stages within the EYFS.

An activity was set up which involved treasure being hidden under rice, in pots and trays, some little small world animals and some simple children’s weighing scales. The scales do not show specific amounts but show heavier, lighter or which objects weigh the same.

The children first spent some time uncovering and discovering all the hidden buried treasure and didn’t pay much attention to the scales. The children extended the activity themselves and enjoyed filling and emptying the pots and hiding the treasure and animals under the trays. The children played independently and cooperatively as they sought out one another to share their experiences with.

The practitioners who set up the activity encouraged the children to explore the scales and introduced them to some key phrases during the activity. The children enjoyed adding different things to the scales to discover which would be heavier and which would be lighter.

They discovered the more animals they added to the pots the lower down the scales would go. The practitioners continued to role model the mathematical language throughout the activity discussing how the lower the scales went the heavier the objects in the pot were.

The children continued to swap and change the objects in the scales and were very engrossed in the task. As the activity went on some of the children began talking about how the pot was really heavy when it was full because it went all the way down. This was amazing to see how the children were making sense of the activity as they continued to play, explore and critically think.