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Shorter and Longer: Measurement, Cutting and Sorting Activity
The Shorter and Longer freebie from Kindercraze is one of our early school-year favorites. Incorporating measurement, sorting and cutting, it gives the kiddos hands-on control over how they want to complete the activity.
To start, we provide our kiddos with a stash of precut construction paper strips (about 3/4 in x 4 in long), glue sticks and scissors.
We ask them to select whatever color strips they want and to cut each strip into two unequal pieces and then to sort and glue the pieces on the appropriate sides. They love that they get to pick the colors and number of strips, and they get to cut the strips wherever they want.
We generally don’t have any readers yet at the beginning of the year, so after we give our kiddos the instructions, we also draw a short line under the word “shorter” and a long line under the word “longer” to help them remember which side is which.
This is a great assessment vehicle not just for sorting and comprehension of the measurement concepts of longer and shorter, but also for multi-step direction following.
Let us know what you think of this freebie in the comments!
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Create A Rainbow Sensory Bin For Colorful Exploration
As it gets warmer in the spring and summer, a lot of our themes celebrate the beauty of nature, and one of the many ways we do that is by examining what makes a rainbow. Our rainbow sensory bin accompanies a whole-classroom rainbow theme and lesson plan.
(This post contains affiliate links. Purchase through these links supports Preschooligans.) Our kiddos love the scooping, pouring, observing, exploring, touching, feeling and creating that comes with enjoying sensory bins. This one is a particular favorite because of its bright (but not overwhelming) colors and the great variety of touch experiences that it provides.
Rainbow Sensory Bin Ingredients:
- 5-pound bag dry, white rice (alter depending on the size of your container/class)
- Blue liquid watercolor (we used Colorations blue watercolor, purchase on Amazon)
- Length of rainbow-patterned 3/8-inch grosgrain ribbon (purchase on Amazon)
- Cotton balls
- Sparkly pompoms in rainbow colors (purchase on Amazon)
- Recycled laundry detergent caps and scoops
- Optional: Plastic glitter in clear, white and/or silver
Directions: To color the rice, we poured it in a large tray and mixed in the watercolor to coat all of the rice well. Then we let it sit to dry. We stirred periodically over the course of the few days it took to dry.
The watercolor fades to a lighter shade as it dries, so what started out as dark blue rice, faded into a pretty sky blue by the time the rice was dry.
Once dry, we mixed in rainbow-colored items — red, orange, yellow, green, blue and purple sparkly pompoms in various sizes and some 3-4 inch cuts of rainbow ribbon. We also threw in a few shakes of clear, white and silver glitter for a little extra sparkle. Then we topped it off with some fluffy cloud-like cotton balls.
For scoopers, we recycled laundry detergent caps and scoops (clean thoroughly before use). We ask our parents to bring in these items as they are done with them.
Other fun items you could add to your rainbow sensory bin:
- Rainbow-colored buttons in assorted shapes
- Rainbow-colored beads
- Ribbon strips in each of the colors of the rainbow
- Plastic vase fillers in rainbow colors
- Strips and crumples of tissue paper in the colors of the rainbow
- Paper shreds or basket fillers in rainbow colors
- Plastic gold coins
Our kiddos love sensory bins, and when we’re done with the unit, we simply pack the contents up into a large ziptop bag and save it for the next time.
For more rainbow-related fun, check out our way cool Rain Cloud Science Experiment!
Tried this? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section!
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