Early Math Project

Who can win a foot race with a cheetah?

 

Topics: comparison, measurement, ratio

 

Activities To Do Together: 

• Discuss comparison words and how the meaning changes with the suffix. For example big, bigger, and biggest;

• Compare the heights of three people the child knows: Hanna is tall, Mom is taller, and Dad is tallest.

• You can also use this book to talk about the different attributes we measure: height, weight, speed, strength, etc. 

• Introduce ratios such as speed. We measure the speed of a cheetah in miles per hour - how many miles a cheetah could travel in one hour.

• Measure different features of objects around your home or neighborhood.

• Compare weights of different foods at the grocery store.

 

Questions for Mathematical Thinking:

1. Design a new animal who could break one of the records discussed in the book. Describe your animal in detail. Draw a picture of your animal and name it. What type of animal is it? What record does it break?

2. The land snail moves about 8 inches in one minute. How long would it take to go across your desk/table? How did you get your answer?

3. A flea can jump about 8 inches upward in a single jump. How many jumps would the flea have to make to land on Miss Entomologist’s head (she is 64 inches tall)? 

4. If an African Elephant eats three-hundred pounds of grass and leaves every day, how many pounds of grass and leaves can she eat in two days? One week? One month? Explain how you know.

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Vocabulary for Building Math Concepts: 

average, bigger, biggest, dime, faster, fastest, five times, half, half an hour, height, hundred, largest, less than, longest, measured, mile, miles per hour, minute, ounce, pounds, shorter, slowest, smaller, smallest, speeds, strongest, tallest, teaspoon, twice 

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Please check out the Book Guide for Biggest, Strongest, Fastest for more!

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Online External Resources for Biggest, Strongest, Fastest

• Coming Soon!

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