Big and Small Activities for Preschool using Cardboard Cutouts

Are you looking for big and small activities for toddlers and preschoolers? 

Here’s a really fun and simple activity that incorporates big & small games using none other than items you probably already have right at home! 

There are really only 3 ingredients to this simple DIY and what a fun learning activity it turned out to be! 

I’ll be sharing below how simple this DIY learning activity is to put together, the preschool learning tools associated with this activity and what we used. 🙂 

Note: Are you looking for a fun big and small printable? I have a couple in my store! Check them out here 🙂 

Materials: 

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• Recycled Cereal Box or cardboard cutout

• Foam shapes or Foam cutouts you’d like to practice learning with. 

• Clothespins (we used the big ones and some small ones)

And, those are the 3 ingredients that made this easy set of big and little activities for kids! 

Big and small activities for early years 

Here are the steps I took to create this epic preschool sizes DIY activity: 

• I used 3 different size bowls as a stencil onto the cereal box cutouts. 

• Then, I used scissors to cut the 3 different sized circles. 

• Add your foam stickers around the circles. 

• Add those same foam stickers to the tip of your clothespins.

• These are meant for matching for making learning fun!

Tips: 

• I made sure to use small foam stickers on the small circle, medium foam stickers on the medium circle and large foam stickers on the large circle. 

• This easy peasy big little crafts activity will also work on fine motor skills as your child opens and closes the clothespin onto its correct match. 

• If you are using this big and little theme for preschool, you can make sure each child gets a turn with each foam sticker and try it again with a different foam sticker. 

How do you teach big and small?

An easy way to teach big and small to preschoolers is by trying this easy homemade method mentioned above. 

But there are many, many ways to teach big and small to children. 

Here are some ideas: 

• Use their small figure toys! Make a pile of big-medium-small and practice measurement activities for kids in this simple way. 

• Another fun set of educational activities for preschoolers is to make small balls of playdough and large balls of playdough. Compare the two and learn in this way! 

• Are there a lot of pencils in your classroom? I’m sure there is. Bring out 3 different sizes and compare them from smallest to largest. 

These are just some ideas I can think of off the top of my head that may be super helpful in differentiating big activities and small activities for preschoolers. 

You can add these ideas to preschool small group activities in the classroom and talk about the differences of each of the items in the center. 

Or you can also use this as homework for preschoolers that they can try when they are home. 🙂

How do you introduce big and small concept to preschoolers?

There are many different ways to introduce this concept to preschoolers. 

The ideas mentioned above are great and very simple to try out as most require only household items. 

There is also another fun way to teach the concept of big and small by applying the concept of measuring.

How do you teach preschool sizes? 

One way is to introduce preschool measuring activities or length activities for kids. 

You can use simple manipulatives such as clip on block manipulatives for measuring and learning the difference between how to measure a big and small item. 

For example if we are in the month of September, which is the Fall season, we could incorporate preschool themes for September by collecting leaves from outdoors and use this method to measure the bigger leaves from the smaller ones. 

How do you explain big and small numbers to kindergarten? 

Kindergarteners can learn numbers in a way that is so easy they’ll grasp it quickly. 

You don’t need worksheets for this. 

Using mini erasers or pom poms on a nice cardboard cutout will do the trick! 

Create a 3×3 grid or a ten frame onto the cardboard cutout. 

Then, draw numbers within each square. 

Use the manipulatives (pom poms and mini erasers) to match with the number within the squares. 

Kindergarteners will be able to visually see how different numbers have less and different numbers have more. 

This is a great Montessori approach in learning about numbers and counting for kids! 

Note: For some easy and fun printables for learning about big and small in a fun way, don’t forget to check out our Big and Small Lesson Plan PDF’s in our shop. 

And of course, don’t forget to check out our “Big and Small Activities” Pinterest ideas!

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