Grade
K

Math in Our World: Short, Medium & Long Spoons

Hayden was helping his mom clean and put away the dishes.

He noticed there were a lot of spoons in the drawer. He wanted to line them all up to see how they were the same and how they were different.

Some of the spoons are short and some are tall. The wooden one might be the tallest. The 3 shortest ones could all be the same size. More spoons are metal than plastic. 1 spoon has a truck on the handle. 3 spoons have the same handle but are different sizes.
  1. What do you notice? What do you wonder?
  2. Use pictures, numbers, or words to show or tell what you see.
  3. What math questions can you ask about the picture? Answer all the questions you can!
  • Think about what you can count or compare.
  • What numbers or words could you use to describe the spoons?
  • Use tally marks to count and show the number of spoons of each size. How many long spoons? How many medium spoons? How many short spoons?
  • What is different about each spoon? What is the same? Which spoon is the longest? Which is the shortest?
  • Show your work to someone else and explain your thinking. Did they understand?
  • Ask whether they have any other questions you can answer!

Find some objects to compare, such as spoons, forks, cups or other things in your house. Which one is the longest? Which is the shortest? Think about other things you could compare — which object is the heaviest? Which is the lightest?

Printable Version

Google doc for printing and copying

Reference for Educators

Sample problems and solutions