Nursery World - Mathematics in the EYFS: Measure

Give children plenty of opportunities to measure and compare quantities, and develop the vocabulary to describe what they are doing, with more activity ideas in our series by Sheila Ebbutt and Carole Skinner.

Comparing quantities and measuring are complex skills. Comparing lengths or weights or objects against each other or against a measure, such as a tape or a gram weight, is a complicated process. Sometimes we only need rough measurements and sometimes it is important to be more accurate. One of the skills children will learn is knowing when accuracy matters.

Measuring is something we do all the time, so there are lots of words we can use for comparison: big, small, wide, narrow, tall, short, for example. Young children need to play at measuring to have the opportunity to use as many words as possible.

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