We are continuing our study on shapes by exploring the idea of making squares. Wherever possible, we like to make sure that the children explore concepts by putting materials into the hands of our students and inviting them to manipulate the material…
We had invitations to make squares in a few places around the classroom. Â The first place was on our chalkboard easel…
We started out with just a few squares on the chalkboard as examples of what a square looks like. Â The children all took turns stopping by the easel to try to create their own four sided shapes with different colors of chalk. Â At times, there were several children all vying for a spot at the easel, all working together to draw as many squares as they could…
Before too long, our chalkboard was covered with a collage of squares…
As a class, we all gathered round our large set of tables to work on building squares out of popsicle sticks…
We had a large pile of popsicle sticks on the table for the children to use, but first we discussed how many sides a square has. Â The children all agreed that a square has four sides, so they all took four popsicle sticks to begin creating their squares. Â It didn’t take long before everyone had their own square in front of them…
Once our individual squares were made, we asked the children if they could connect their squares together. Â It quickly became a collaborative effort with all of the children working together…
The children worked together to add their popsicle sticks to the design. Â Some children went a little off course, but I imagine that they were envisioning adding to their sticks to create more squares. Â Unfortunately, we didn’t have time to finish our masterpiece because it was time to go home. Â But I think the design the children did come up with was pretty cool…
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