What are pounds?

A pound is like a big, friendly helper that helps us count how heavy something is.

Imagine you're holding a bag of candy, if it feels about as heavy as a small book, that’s probably around one pound. A pound is a way to measure weight, just like inches help us measure length.

When we talk about how much something weighs, we might say it's 2 pounds, or 5 pounds, depending on how heavy it is. Think of your backpack, if you put in a few books, it might feel like it weighs around 3 to 4 pounds.

A pound is bigger than an ounce, just like a big cookie is bigger than a small one. In fact, there are 16 ounces in 1 pound, so if you have 16 little cookies, together they weigh about 1 pound!

You might see pounds on the scale at the doctor’s office or when you buy fruits and vegetables at the store, it's a helpful way to know how much something weighs.