## 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: Comparing and Ordering

#### Age: 18-21 Months

Click here to go to all skills for ages 18-21 Months.

### Nests 4 nesting blocks or bowls

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.

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.

Behavior Observed

The child may say “big” or “little” and use other terms as he plays. Most children will know the meaning of big and little, heavy and tall. Light and short may be heard less frequently.

Routines-based Intervention (Embedded Instruction)

Encourage early childhood educators and parents to use comparative terms with children to help them understand these concepts. Actual manipulation and comparison with real objects is best for children.

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/.