Jars and Lids

Great practice for estimating sizes and making visual judgments. Trying to fit all the jars and lids together is a group challenge and calls for a good deal of cooperation.

Objectives

Children ages 4-5 years can put objects in order by size Cog. IIIB
Children ages 3-4 years can identify objects bigger than or smaller than and when shown two objects they will be able to tell how they are not the same and how they are the same Cog. IIIB
All children participating will be able to screw the lids onto the bottles (hand-eye coordination for pre-writing skills).

 

Materials

A dozen or so jars with matching lids.

Procedures

Language to be emphasized: wide, narrow, tall, short, big, little.

1. Have children sit on a rug or in a designated area. Put jars of different sizes in the middle of the group. Have children discuss sizes. Tell children that you have the tops to the jars and they are to find which lids go onto which jars.

2. Give each child a jar. Let children try to find a lid to fit. When a child succeeds in finding the proper lid for his jar, let him choose another jar to work on. Encourage the children to verbalize the process, e.g. “Is lid too big or small? What kind of lid are you looking for?” etc.