Biggest and Smallest shows three of the same thing, a small one, a middle-sized one and a large one, and asks your child to choose. It is the story of the three bears turned into a game.
What your child is learning
Comparing size is one of the earliest maths ideas, and it brings important words with it: big, bigger, biggest, small, smaller, smallest. Those "-er" and "-est" endings are surprisingly hard. A child needs to understand that "biggest" means bigger than all the others, not just big.
Having three things to compare, and not two, is what makes this more than a guess. The middle one is neither the answer to "biggest" nor to "smallest", and noticing that is part of the learning.
The question changes between biggest and smallest, so your child has to listen each time.
How to help
Read the question aloud and stress the key word.
Talk about all three. "This one is small. This one is bigger. This one is the biggest of all."
Ask about the one in the middle. "Is this the biggest? Is it the smallest? What could we call it?" Children enjoy "middle-sized".
If your child always taps the largest picture, whatever the question, they are responding to what catches the eye. Slow down and ask, "Which is the smallest?" before any tapping.
Taking it further
Line up three real things by size: spoons, shoes, teddy bears. Then try five.
Bring in other measuring words: tallest and shortest, longest, heaviest and lightest.
Compare people. Who is the tallest in the family? Who has the smallest feet?
It takes two minutes to play, and of all our HTML5 games it is perhaps the best one to follow up with real objects.