Whether you are a big kid or a little kid doesn’t really depend on your age or size. It depends on who you compare yourself to.
With Emily Jenkins’ Small, Medium, Large as a jumping off point, we explored relative sizes in a way that included a vocabulary lesson, math skills, and art. First a bit about the book: Jenkins and Bogacki’s collaboration brings odd little creatures–Ladybug decided that they were dogs, but they might be mice–of various sizes together as they compare their sizes as they generally illustrate the concept of S, M, L, and XL. We follow “small” down to “minuscule” and “large” to “colossal” to the delight of my little word girl.The one-upsmanship makes the book fun for little listeners when it otherwise might be a bit too “educational.” The gatefold with the little creatures stacked up to equal one very large creature is pretty cool too.
I thought it might be fun for my girl to see how she compares to various things, and what better way to do that than to make a life-size drawing of herself? :)
And measure it:
7 of her own feet, 10 of her hands, a bunch of cars, and 42 paperclips.
My only regret is that we didn’t manage to get to the Walker Art Center’s Lifelike exhibit before it ended. If you happen to be in New Orleans, San Diego, or Austin, you might be able to make that happen. It’s great for kids! You could re-create the scenes to explore scale like little girl in this post on the Walker Education blog.