Book Activity| A Little Goes A Long Way Measuring Game

This week’s book activity is inspired by “A Little Goes A Long Way” by July Featured Author Ashley Mills Monaghan. You can check out my review of the book HERE.

To go along with the message of the book, I decided to do a measuring book activity with my son. The activity plays with the concept of using just the right amount and tested his personal ability to pour and guess measurements. 

I call it the “Too Little, Too Much, or Just Enough Game”.

Here is how it worked:

First, I set out 4 measuring cups and 4 different sized containers. 

Each container was only big enough for the amount that each measuring cup would fit.

Next, I got out four different things for him to measure into the containers. 

Each item was obvious and specific to that type of container. 

–Water (Water Glass\ Dog Water Dish)

-Paint (Paint Dish)

-Dog Food (Dog Dish)

-Water Beads—already expanded (Play Tub)

The challenge was to decide which size measuring cup to use for each item, and what should go in each container. 

I thought it was a fun way to explore mindful measuring and also talk a bit about why we use the amounts we use.

I let him make a few mistakes and every time he poured them I would ask him if it was “Too Little, Too Much, Or Just Enough”

It also gave the opportunity to ask him what he thought about some questions like:

Should we put the dog food in this big tub?

“No.”

Why Not?

“Because I don’t want to play with the dog food.” (I laughed so hard)

Should we fill this whole glass with paint?

“No, that glass is for drinking!”

Would it be too much paint?

“Yes. Because it’s too much and it will be all over and everything would be blue and messy and…” (Apparently we were very passionate about this one.)

Should we pour all the water from this big pitcher into the glass? Would it all fit? 

“No, Too much!” (He affected the “don’t you get it mommy?” tone on this one.)

What else might we use the extra water for?

We talked about adding some to the dog’s water, using water for the paint, expanding the water beads. We did some of these things as well.

Should use this little paint tray for the water beads? Would that still be fun?

He said yes. Apparently any amount of water beads is fun.

Overall, this was a very interesting and enlightening activity for my son and I.

He did an amazing job and I was impressed with how good he already is with guessing how much will fit in each container. He actually became a little annoyed with me that I “didn’t get it”, which was hilarious.

The book has some other activities and discussion tips inside, and I highly recommend it as part of your home or classroom library. 

You can get your copy of A Little Goes A Long Way HERE.