## North Carolina Early Learning and Development Progressions: Birth to Five

#### Domain: NC Foundations for Early Learning: Cognitive Development (CD)

#### Subdomain: Mathematical Thinking and Expression

#### Goal: Children compare, sort, group, organize and measure objects and create patterns in their everyday environment.

#### Skill Progression: Measuring

#### Age: 18-21 Months

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### Size: Nests objects (relates sizes)

Situations for Observation of Skill

Bring out four bowls of different sizes and weights that can be nested inside each other. Have some pieces of paper and a spoon to put in the bowls to stir up. Keep the paper and spoon to one side at first. Nesting requires comparing and ordering, but the child is also measuring what can fit inside (size, amount).

Elicitation Strategy

Let the child watch as the adult takes out the bowls one at a time. Watch as the child lifts the bowls and notices the different weights. See what the child does with the bowls. Once the bowls are re-nested, take out the paper and spoon and tear the paper up into little pieces. Talk about “filling the big bowl with all the bowls.”

Behavior Observed

The child may say “big” or “little” and use other terms as he nests objects.

Routines-based Intervention (Embedded Instruction)

Encourage activities with “empty and fill” with real objects, not just water or sand.

North Carolina Department of Public Instruction, 2015

©2015 by the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. To view a copy of this license, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/.