You may think of weight and measurement as a concept too advanced for young children to understand, but your child can gain a foundational understanding of the meaning of weight with this fun activity!
Materials Needed:
• A Weight Balance
• 2-3 small pumpkins (and gourds if available) per child, all different sized and weights
• Something standard to balance the weight of the pumpkins, such as beans, counting bears, cubes or blocks.
1. Line up the pumpkins and talk about what is the same and what is different about them.
2. Help children to understand big, bigger and biggest. You can also talk about heavier/lighter. Line up your pumpkins according to their size.
3. Help children to understand how the balance works by first showing them that the beans (or whatever else you are using to balance your pumpkins) can alter the way the balance leans. Help them to understand that the goal is to make the balance straight all the way across.
4. Now pose a question to the children. "How many blocks do you think it would take to balance this pumpkin?" Encourage them to make estimates, then test them by balancing the pumpkin with the beans. Then try another pumpkin and compare. You can also weigh two pumpkins against each other to see how one is heavier than the other.
5. Let the children decorate the pumpkins to show which was the heaviest, and the lightest.
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