What Weighs More? A Hands-On Sorting Worksheet Set

Are you currently teaching your students about the terms heavy and light and introducing mass of objects? This set of cut-and-paste worksheets work as a great lesson hook or end of lesson activity to get your students thinking about what objects are heavy and what objects are light. This set of four worksheets has been created by an early years teacher and has students thinking about similar objects and their mass. 

The worksheets include:

• The mass of a variety of animals and ordering them from heaviest to lightest.
• The mass of classroom objects and ordering them from heaviest to lightest.
• The mass of objects you see while shopping and ordering them from heaviest to lightest.
• Answer sheets.

Why Ordering Objects Based on Mass Helps Students Understand Mass

While you can do this sort of activity with real objects in the classroom as a starting point, this set of worksheets has students thinking about the objects and predicting based on prior knowledge which is heaviest and which is lightest. This helps students in the following ways:

• Develops the skill of estimation and allows students to see patterns in size and weight.
• Ordering objects helps students develop logical thinking.
• Strengthens their ability to compare and contrast.
• Encourages conversations around the vocabulary of heaviest and lightest and encourages students to explain their thinking.

How to Download and Use this Resource

By using the dropdown menu you can choose between the editable Google Slide version allowing you to change up the objects if you wish as well as an easy to print PDF version.

While this resource has been created as a cut and paste style worksheet. You can print the objects on colored paper and laminate them and have students physically order the objects on the floor in pairs. Then keep them in a zip lock bag to use time and time again.

This resource was created by Brittany Collins, a teacher in Indiana and a Teach Starter collaborator.

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