#68 Bring Variety

Bring Variety

After playing with multiplication, invite kids to come up with many different rules for changing the number of blocks. Some kids build abstract patterns, but others prefer stories. Ask each child to come up with a story as you build. They may pretend to feed a three-course meal to teddy bears, or to bring important cargo from the docks with big trucks.

Ask children to build the tower that should be in the next empty cell in a row or column. Rows and columns require different reasoning! For extra hard challenge, pick a cell in the middle of an empty space several rows and columns away from your filled grid.

Instead of blocks, use bamboo skewers sticking from a cardboard or Styrofoam box, or florist foam marked with a grid. Thread large beads or pasta on them. Or make a hanging mobile by suspending yarn from a piece of cardboard marked with a grid. Thread beads, seashells, or other natural objects on the yarn.