Joseph’s Ribbon Test

Joseph was wrapping a pretend present for his teddy. He found two ribbons in Mum’s craft basket. One was green and one was orange. “Which ribbon is longer?” he asked. The ends were all mixed up.

Joseph laid the ribbons on the table. The green one started farther along than the orange one. “Green reaches farther,” he said. Mum asked, “Are the ribbons starting from the same place?” Joseph looked again.

He moved one end of each ribbon to the edge of the table. He smoothed them straight, side by side. Now the orange ribbon reached farther. “Now I can compare them,” he said. “They start in the same place.”

Mum brought a few large wooden cubes, all the same size. “You could measure with these,” she said. Joseph lined cubes along the green ribbon. He left spaces between them and counted three cubes.

“Do the gaps count as cubes?” asked Mum. Joseph shook his head. He pushed the cubes together, with no gaps and no overlaps. Now four cubes matched the green ribbon from its start to its end.

Joseph measured the orange ribbon with the same cubes. He lined them up carefully. This ribbon was five cubes long. “Five is more than four,” he said. “Orange is longer by one cube.”

He chose the orange ribbon for the pretend present. Mum helped him lay it round the box. Joseph set the green ribbon aside for a smaller box. Neither ribbon needed to be cut.

Teddy sat beside the finished present. Joseph showed Mum his measuring line. “Same start, same cubes, no gaps,” he said. “That’s why I chose the orange one!” Mum nodded. “You checked instead of guessing.”