Teaching the Concept of Big and Little: A Hands on Approach

When teaching or reviewing a new concept I try to find a way to engage my students and my toddler, and hands on activities are the way to go! Hands on activities keep them involved longer and is a great way to involve all of their senses.

Today we were targeting big and little so I decided that I would use contact paper to create a fun activity for my daughter to do when she got up from her nap! 

 All you need is:
Contact Paper (Dollar Tree sells this)
Pom Poms (I got mine at Hobby Lobby and used my 40% off coupon, less than $3)
Scissors 
Some sort of tape: I suggest painters tape as it will not leave anything behind
 I cut my contact paper into two pieces and hung them on our sliding glass doors. 

I find any excuse to use my Silhouette Cameo so I created these letters, but you do not need anything fancy, you don't even need a label if you don't want one. This will give students an option to sort ANYWAY they want, big/little or color :)

I loved these pom poms from Hobby Lobby as there was a distinct size difference between big and little. 
Then the fun happens!
My little one caught on really quickly to the concept of sorting big and little. But if your student or child is struggling with the concept I suggest having them stand across the room and take a good look at the two choices before they put on the pom pom.  I think at times kids just like to put the pom poms on the contact paper and don't really focus on the task at hand, so backing them up gives them some time to think!
The contact paper held all of the pom poms, even the BIG ones, and will last a good month or two of playing with before needing to change it out! My big pom poms did leave behind some fuzz so that piece may need to be changed sooner. 


This would be a great work station or a great morning activity! 


Here are some other ways you could use contact paper and sorting!
Reading and sorting color words. TIP: laminate any paper you put onto the contact paper or it will not come off nicely!  


Here we sorted the words big and little, but you could easily sort sight words or words that end in "ed" or "en", etc.  There are so many possibilities with this one! I could see using this one from K-3rd!  

Sort zoo and farm animals 


You could have a bunch of math facts and sort them based on their answer. 


The possibilities are endless! We used contact paper back in December to decorate a Christmas tree!


HAVE FUN!



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