Lesson video

Hello everybody.

My name is Mrs. Johnson.

I am so excited to be here today to help you with some of your maths learning.

I hope you are ready to work hard and have lots of fun.

Let's have a look at what we are going to be learning about today.

This lesson is called Comparing Lengths.

It comes from the unit, "Number 0 to 20 in Different Contexts." By the end of this lesson, you will be able to use the language of comparing to compare lengths.

You might have used the language of comparing before when you've been learning about numbers.

You might have learned how to talk about numbers that are bigger, or smaller, or greater than, or less than.

Today you are going to learn about comparing when we are looking at lengths.

There are some key words that are going to really help you with your learning today, so I would like you to practise saying them.

I will say them first, and then it will be your turn.

Ready? My turn, length.

Your turn.

My turn, height.

Your turn.

My turn, longer.

Your turn.

My turn, longest.

Your turn.

My turn, shorter.

Your turn.

My turn, shortest.

Your turn.

My turn, taller.

Your turn.

My turn, tallest.

Your turn.

Well done, everybody.

Listen carefully for those words in this lesson because they are going to be really important when we are learning to compare lengths.

There are going to be two parts to this lesson.

To begin with, you are going to learn about comparing two lengths, and then in a little while you are going to learn about comparing more than two lengths.

Let's start by finding out about what happens when you compare two lengths.

There are some friends who are going to help in today's lesson.

Their names are Izzy and John.

Listen carefully to what Izzy and John tell you because they have some really important information in this lesson.

Izzy and John have been out for a walk in the woods and they have collected some materials.

John found this stick, and Izzy found this stick.

Do you notice anything about their sticks that they have found? John says my stick is longer and Izzy says my stick is shorter.

You can see that, can't you? John stick is longer than Izzy's stick.

Izzy's stick is shorter than John's stick.

They collected some leaves.

John says, my leaf is shorter.

Izzy says, my leaf is longer.

They collected some stones.

John says, my stone is longer.

Izzy says, my stone is shorter.

When you look at how long things are, you are measuring length.

You can use the words shorter and longer to compare length.

The objects don't have to be the same type.

Izzy has a leaf and a stone here.

Izzy could say the leaf is longer than the stone.

The stone is shorter than the leaf.

Let's check if you understand that by seeing if you know who is correct.

Look at the feather and the leaf.

John says, the leaf is longer than the feather.

Izzy says, the leaf is shorter than the feather.

Who do you think is correct? Pause the video if you need a bit longer.

Well done if you said John.

John is correct, the leaf is longer than the feather in this picture.

At playtime, John and Izzy found some skipping ropes.

John says, I think my rope is longer.

Izzy says, I am not sure if my rope is longer or shorter.

I wonder why she's not sure.

Do you notice anything about the ropes in the picture? That means that Izzy might be a little bit confused about whether her rope is longer or shorter.

I think you've spotted it, let's have a look.

When you want to measure the length of an object, you should make it as straight as you can.

Izzy needs to make her rope straighter.

Let's help her out.

There we go, now Izzy's rope is nice and straight.

John can say that now my rope is shorter, and Izzy can see that my rope is longer.

It is really important to make your object as straight as you can so that you can compare the lengths and you can know which one is shorter, and which one is longer.

Now Izzy and John are standing next to each other.

Izzy says, "When we stand together, am I longer than you, John?" What do you think about that, is Izzy longer than John? Let's see what John says.

He says, "You are, but we say you are taller than me." When you measure the length of something that is standing from the bottom up to the top, you are measuring height.

When you measure height, you use the words taller and shorter.

Izzy is taller than John, John is shorter than Izzy.

Let's compare the height of these toys.

Do you think you can see which toy is taller and which toy is shorter? Let's have a look.

The robot is taller than the unicorn.

The unicorn is shorter than the robot.

We could do the same thing with this panda and this teddy.

Let's compare the height of these toys.

The panda is shorter than the teddy bear.

The teddy bear is taller than the panda.

Let's check if you can do that.

Can you look at the pictures of these toys and fill in these sentences? The car is _ than the astronaut.

The astronaut is _ than the car.

Pause the video if you need a little bit longer to do that.

Well done everybody.

Let's see if you've got the right words in the right place.

The car is shorter than the astronaut.

The astronaut is taller than the car.

Good job if you said that.

Now it's time for you to go and do a piece of work.

To start with, you're going to look at the picture of the panda and the robot and use those words to complete the first two sentences.

Then I want you to look at the picture of the feather, the stone, and the leaf, and use those words to complete the sentences.

Think really carefully about the length of the object.

Which one is taller or shorter? Which one is longer or shorter? Go and do your best to fill in all the spaces in those sentences.

Ready? Off you go.

Well done everyone.

Let's have a look and see if you have got the correct words in each space.

To start with, let's look at the panda and the robot.

You need to say that the panda is taller than the robot, and the robot is shorter than the panda.

Well done if you got those two.

In the next part, there are a few different ways that you could have filled this in.

So I will show you one way, but you might have done them in a different order to this, and that's okay.

You could say that the feather is longer than the leaf.

The leaf is shorter than the feather.

The leaf is longer than the stone, and the stone is shorter than the leaf.

You might have also said, the feather is longer than the stone, and the stone is shorter than the feather.

Well done, you have thought really carefully about how we can compare the length of those objects.

Now it's time for the second part of the lesson, and you are going to learn about what happens when you compare more than two lengths.

You can see three items on the screen now.

You can see a stone, and a leaf, and a feather.

You could say the leaf is longer than the stone.

And you could say the feather is longer than the stone and the leaf.

This means the feather is the longest object, because it is longer than the leaf, and it is longer than the stone, the feather is the longest object.

I wonder what else we could say about these three objects.

You could say the leaf is shorter than the feather.

You could say the stone is shorter than the leaf and the feather.

That means the stone is the shortest object.

It is shorter than the rest, so it is the shortest.

When there are more than two lengths to compare, you can use the words longest and shortest.

The stone is the shortest object.

The feather is the longest object.

Let's check if you can use the word longest, which pencil is the longest? Do you think it's A, B or C? The longest pencil is B.

Well done if you spotted it.

Can you use the word shortest? Which rope is the shortest, A, B, or C? The shortest rope is C.

Well done if you said C.

Now you can see three different toys, and you're going to think about comparing the height.

You could say the astronaut is taller than the unicorn.

And you could say, the robot is taller than the astronaut and the unicorn.

If the robot is taller than all the other toys, that means the robot is the tallest object.

When there are more than two heights to compare, you can use the words tallest and shortest.

The astronaut is shorter than the robot.

The unicorn is shorter than the astronaut and the robot.

That means the unicorn is the shortest object.

Let's see if you can use tallest and shortest.

The robot is the _ object.

The teddy bear is the _ object.

Which sentence do you need to add the word tallest, and which sentence do you need to add the word shortest? Pause the video and have a go.

Well done.

Let's see if you've got those words the right way round.

The robot is the shortest object.

The teddy bear is the tallest object.

Good job if you said that.

John and Izzy are comparing some more sticks that they found earlier on their walk.

John says, my stick is the longest.

Izzy says, I have two sticks, which one is the shortest? What do you notice about Izzy's two sticks? I think you've spotted it, let's have a look.

Izzy's two sticks are an equal length, they are the same.

That means they are both the shortest.

If two or more lengths in a set are the same, you can use the word equal to compare them.

More than one object can be the longest, or the shortest, or the tallest if they are an equal length.

If you look at these toys, you can see that the robot is the shortest object.

But if we are looking for the tallest object, you can see that both those teddy bears are the same height.

The teddy bears are equal, so they are both the tallest objects.

Can you find the longest and the shortest feathers? Watch out because there are some equal lengths this time.

Pause the video and have a think which feathers are the longest and the shortest.

Let's have a look what you thought.

So I can see that this feather at the bottom is the longest.

It is longer than all the others.

Now we've got to find the shortest feather.

I can see three feathers there, and I'm noticing that one of them looks longer than the other two.

I can see two feathers that are equal.

These two feathers are both the shortest, they are equal in length and they are shorter than all the other feathers, that means they are both the shortest.

Well done if you spotted the one longest feather and the two shortest feathers, good job.

Let's see if you can find the tallest and the shortest objects when two of them might be equal.

Pause the video and have a think which are the tallest and the shortest objects this time.

Well done everybody for having a really good think about that, let's have a look.

You can see that the dragon is the tallest object, it is taller than all the others, isn't it? Outta the three toys that are left, I can see that the unicorn is a bit taller than the other two.

So I could say that these two objects are both the shortest.

They are an equal length and they are shorter than all the other objects, so they are both the shortest toys.

Well done if you spotted that too.

Now you are going to practise comparing more than two lengths.

I would like you to get some playdough and roll it into some snake or some worm shapes.

And I would like you to make three different snakes or worms with your playdough.

When you've got three like this, I want you to be able to use the words longer, shorter, longest and shortest to describe the length of your snakes to your partner.

So I want you to be able to say, this snake is the longest, and this snake is the shortest.

And I also want you to be able to say, this snake is longer than this snake, or this snake is shorter than this snake.

Go and practise using those words and tell your partner all about the snakes or the worms that you have made.

Once you have told your partner all about your snakes or your worms that you've made from playdough, you are going to make something else.

I would like you to use some cubes to build some different towers, a little bit like this.

And I would like you to be able to use these words, taller, shorter, tallest, and shortest, to describe the height of your towers to your partner.

So you might say something like this, the second tower is the shortest, or you could say, the second tower is shorter than the first tower.

Make sure you use those important words, taller, shorter, tallest, and shortest to talk about the height of your towers and tell your partner all about them.

Are you ready? Off you go.

Well done everybody.

Let's start by having a look at what you might have said about your snakes or your worms that you made out of playdough.

This is what Izzy did.

She said, the snake at the bottom is the shortest, because the other snakes are all longer than that one.

Well done if you use some of those important words like Izzy has.

Let's have a look at what John said about his towers.

I wonder if you said anything a little bit like this.

John said, the first and the last towers are an equal height and the third tower is the tallest.

He's used some of those important words too, hasn't he? Well done if you used some of those words when you were talking to your partner.

Excellent work, everybody.

Now that you are at the end of the lesson, you have learnt that when you look at how long or how tall something is, you are measuring length.

You know that height is a type of length.

You can use the words longer, taller, and shorter to compare the length of two objects.

And you have also learnt that when there are more than two objects, you can also use the words longest, shortest, and tallest to compare the lengths.

You would be able to say, the panda is taller than the robot, the robot is the shortest toy, the teddy bear is the tallest toy.

You would also be able to notice that the pencil at the top is shorter than the pencil in the middle.

The pencil in the middle is the longest pencil, and the pencil at the bottom is the shortest pencil.

Well done for all your excellent thinking about how we can compare lengths today, you have done some really hard work.

Well done everybody.

I hope that I'll see you again for some more maths learning soon.

Bye everyone.