Order Up!

Beginning

• Model lining up the edges of the towers exactly to compare their relative length.

Intermediate

• Tell students that the suffix "est" replaces most in the phrase. We do not say, "Which tower is the most short?" We say, "Which tower is the shortest?"

Beginning

• Remind students that a tower that is shorter than the others will have less cubes.
• A tower that is longer than the others will have more cubes.

Intermediate

• Prompt student to describe the relative length of the different towers using demonstrative adjectives.
• Provide sentence frames:
  • "This tower is ____ cubes long, but that tower is ____ cubes long."
  • "This tower is the ____ (shortest/longest)."

Beginning

• Have students work in a teacher-led small group to create and order their towers.
• Introduce the suffix "-er" to mean "more." Provide sentence frames:
  • "The ____ is shorter than the ____."
  • "The ____ is longer than the ____."
  • "The ____ is the ____."

Intermediate

• Show students that when we measure length, we are measuring horizontally. Have them gesture by pulling hands apart from each other and repeating after you, "length." "How long is it?"
• Tell students that when we want to measure from top to bottom, we measure height. Have students gesture by moving one hand up and repeating after you, "height." Remind students that when we measure height, we ask "How tall is it?" Brainstorm objects such as trees or buildings with an obvious height dimension.