Long and Short!

Children in nursery need to use and understand the mathematical language of long and short. This could be displayed through a variety of play ideas including looking at items in your environment. First the adult can find different items around the house of different lengths and put them into a box without their child seeing. The child then closes their eyes, puts their hand in to pull something out. They then have sort the item into two piles, ‘Long’ and ‘Short’. Items you can place in the box include, a long and short ruler, a long and short pencil, a long and short brush etc. 

Snake Families- long and short!

If your child is using playdough this week, why not encourage them to make a long snake and a short snake/worm. They can then make families for them. Always encourage your child to use the language of ‘long’ and ‘short’ as well as understanding what the terms mean.

Below you will find a long and short resource. You can colour and cut the snakes, talk about their lengths, put the long snakes in a group, put the short snakes in a group or you can use it with your play dough as a snake template. Can you make your playdough snakes the same length as the snakes on the page?