Smallest to Biggest

Ordering by size, with a box under each picture to write the number in. The easy version draws one picture at three to six sizes and jumbles them, so the child is comparing what they can see. The harder version puts different objects in the row, every one drawn the same size on the paper, so an ant, a cat and a lorry can only be put in order by thinking about how big they are in real life. Length puts strips, pencils, ribbons or snakes one above the other from the same starting line; height stands towers of blocks or trees side by side on the same ground. Every version can be numbered in order (smallest-first or biggest-first, with the first box filled in as a worked example if you like) or turned into the simplest question of all: colour the biggest, the longest, the tallest, or the smallest, the shortest.

Age

ages 3–9

Answer key

Included, free

Skills

visual discriminationlogicclassificationspatial reasoning

What you can change

• What is being compared

  One picture, resized, Different things, Long and short, Tall and short

• What to do

  Number them, Colour the biggest, Colour the smallest

• Pictures in a row

  3–6 pictures

• How many rows

  1–4 rows

• Things to compare

  Strips, Pencils, Ribbons, Snakes

• Number them

  Smallest first, Biggest first

• Fill in the first one

• Every page also takes the book's language, page size, theme and pictures.