Monday, February 8, 2016

Righty Tighty, Lefty Loosey






Size grading with bolts, washers, and nuts !!

Hex cap screws and the nuts and washers that fit them are found at most home improvement stores.  I found a combination of these at Home Depot for less than $10.00.  My original sizes were:

3/4" x 3"
5/8" x 2 1/2" 
1/2" x 2 1/4"
7/16" x 2"
3/8" x 1 3/4"
5/16" x 1 1/2"
1/4" x 1 1/4"
1/4" x 1"
1/4" x 3/4" and
1/4" x 1/2"

But after much searching and running out of snacks for Olivia and Emma I put a group together based on longest to shortest with as much variety that I could formulate.  Below is what it looked like.  I purchased two sets, one for each little darling.



Your child can do lots of cool things with the washer and nuts in addition to attaching them.



We started by inserting them into floral blocks based on tallest to shortest.


From there we added the washers...this got a little tricky when they realized the larger ones fit on all or most of them.  So I had them line them up based on size again. 





Made things a little easier.




From there we screwed on the bolts.  Emma certainly surprised me on this one...she did great and was very patient.



From there we pulled them out and rearranged them in different orders.  Talked about tallest, shortest, heaviest, lightest, left, right and middle.



All these objects naturally provide lots of chances to count, and my kiddos love to count.  When counting we make sure we touch and count in synch.  This 1:1 association is very important for math skills development and understanding.

You can introduce all kinds of new words while your child is using these materials.  Examples include:  Largest, smallest, larger than, smaller than, shortest, longest, wide, thin, round, straight, edge, corner, point, side, face, cube, rod, circle, heaviest, lightest, hexagonal and rectangular prism (as Olivia loves to correct me on).

As always...have fun and be creative.








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