Just a Little Bit
Grab some of your everyday items and discover which weighs the most or the least!
Big Idea
Exploring and experimenting with different scientific tools to measure units of weight.
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- Just a Little Bit by Ann Tompert
- Scale / Balancing scale
- Household items
Materials
Setup
Read Just a Little Bit or head over to our Storytime read aloud section on the Home Zone to listen to one of our educators read the story. Collect household items and prepare the scale. If you’re making your own balancing scale, a ruler and a cup can work just as well.
Directions
1.Read Just a Little Bit and discuss.
2.Start weighing household items (cups, shoes, etc.). Encourage children to say weights in units of measurements (lbs, kgs).
3.For older children, make predictions about which will be heavier or lighter.
- What does a scale do?
- How do we make the balancing scale flat?
- Why is one side taller than the other?
- Why is the other side lower?
- What do you think is the heaviest item in the house? How do you know?
- What do you think is the lightest item in the house? How do you know?
Investigation Questions:
Learning Standards
- 2.C.ECa Interact with a variety of types of texts (e.g. storybooks, poems, rhymes, songs).
Read and discuss Just a Little Bit by Ann Tompert.
7.B.ECa Practice estimating in everyday play and everyday measurement problems.
While measuring, encourage your children to hypothesize which weighs more or less.
7.C.ECa With teacher assistance, explore use of measuring tools that use standard units to measure objects and quantities that are meaningful to the child.
Children will be practicing measuring weight with standard scales or balancing scales.
13.B.ECa Use nonstandard and standard scientific tools for investigation.
Children may use real scales or make their own balancing scales to predict weights.