## 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: 30-33 Months

Click here to go to all skills for ages 30-33 Months.

### Size: Points to smaller/ larger of two objects

Situations for Observation of Skill

The adult can elicit vocabulary by being a player. In dramatic play outdoors, say, “I am making a museum of nature for people to come and see. I need rocks. I need a big one and a little one.” “ I need a heavy one and a light one.” “Okay, now how about a tall stick.” Continue with other characteristics hard, soft, etc. If the child brings many rocks, “Say, I just need one. You pick the one.” (You can also add in counting and say a number that you need.)

Elicitation Strategy

As the child gets older, she will understand the dramatic play aspect and will begin to contribute her own ideas. Use the terms bigger, smaller, etc. “This is a nice small rock, can you find one a little bit bigger?”

Behavior Observed

Identifies the global categories of short and long, and uses comparative terms with two items.

Routines-based Intervention (Embedded Instruction)

As children begin to see more discrete differences, they add vocabulary to describe what they are seeing. Encourage parents to use comparative terms in their daily routines. For instance, while cooking dinner, say, “Can you find a larger potato for Daddy?”

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/.