The children listened to the story and then afterwards we looked at three bowls of different sizes. The children made predictions of which bowl belongs to Papa Bear, which bowl belongs to Mama Bear and which bowl belongs to Baby Bear.
The children agreed with Cyprus that the red bowl was Baby Bear's bowl because it was the smallest. They agreed with Nathaniel that the black bowl was Mama Bear's bowl because it was the next biggest. And they agreed with Timnet that the brown bowl was Papa Bear's bowl because it was the biggest.
Ms Chan filled the red bowl with rice bubbles. The children said that this bowl was the smallest.
Ms Chan asked, How do you know you are right? How can we check?
Cyprus explained, 'Measure the rice bubbles to see whose (which) is the biggest (bowl).'
Ken poured the rice bubbles from the red bowl (Baby Bear's Bowl) into the black bowl, Mama Bear's bowl.
Rosina commented, 'Looks bigger than Baby Bears'. Cyprus added, 'Baby Bear's size is up to here (points to the top) and Mama Bears is only up to here.'
Next Helina poured the rice bubbles from the black bowl (Mama Bear's bowl) into the brown bowl (Papa Bear's bowl). Helina commented, 'Tiny . . . looks little.'
Elena added 'The rice is not full because there's more space.'
After they had finished comparing which bowl could hold the most and smallest amount of rice bubbles, the children drew the different bowls to help strengthen their understanding of what had been experienced.
On their finished drawings, each child pointed out which bowl could hold the most rice bubbles and which bowl could hold the smallest amount of rice bubbles.
We look forward to exploring measurement further and seeing the childrens' ideas and understanding develop through more hands on experiences such as this one, that allow plenty of opportunities for the children to demonstrate, discuss and share their thinking with each other.
