a child scatters the squares backed with tagboard on the floor he takes a loose material square and looks for the matching square on the floor he then places the matching square on top of the square on the floor
when he is finished the child places all the tagboard backed squares in one box and the loose material squares in the second box this automatically shuffles the pieces for the next child’s use
after completing this activity the child may enjoy working with the squares in another way he might choose any specific number of squares and take them outside the classroom to the cement where he can chalk out the area he thinks his squares would cover then he can lay the squares down and check his estimation Children become increasingly accurate in their estimations with more frequent trials and often very impressed with this new found power
the teacher might say, scatter the squares with paper on the back around on the floor then see if you can find the material on the floor that matches these other squares
what have you been doing? How did you go about it? Show me gather up all the squares with plaid material and give them to me and all the ones with stripes
point to all the squares that have red in them show me the squares that have yellow or white in them give me a square that does not have orange, or green, or red in it
how many squares are there that are solid colors? Count them for me please
do you have a favorite pattern?
Show me some material that reminds you of something you have at home is there any material like the material on your couch or on a chair?