Materials:

• Quartette board print-out QUARTETTE BOARD
• 8 markers in two different colors ex. 4 red and 4 blue

Directions:

• Give each player their 4 markers in whatever color they choose
• Take your 4 markers of the same color and place them on the board so the colors alternate on the top and bottom rows
• Take turns moving your markers vertically or horizontally into any square that is adjacent and empty
• The first player to get four in a row wins!
• You must always move one of your markers on your turn, markers cannot be moved diagonally, and you cannot “jump” over someone else’s marker

As you are playing this game, it’s a great opportunity to work on logic with your child and have conversations about directions. Some things you could say are, “My marker needs to go up one space for me to get two next to each other, how many spaces does your marker need to move?” “Are you going to move yours right or left now?” “I have three markers next to one another, how many do you have?”

If you look up Busy Boards on Pinterest, you will see dozens of great examples of homemade versions that are wonderfully constructed, have stimulating and varying materials, and range in size.  My neighbor’s board is HUGE!  That is one of the things I really like about it.  Several children can stand in front of it at once and manipulate the levers and knobs. It is also tall enough that four and five-year olds can stand alongside their younger classmates or siblings and play side by side. It is also solidly made; heavy plywood, securely fastened objects, and softly sanded edges.  I asked my neighbor where she got it and it turns out that her brother built it for her children as a gift.  With a little ingenuity, a dash of elbow grease, and a few hours of work you can build your own Busy Board for your classroom, program, or outdoor space.

You can see that this board is a little weather worn because it lives outside in the backyard.  It has a base that allows it to stand anywhere, but it would be equally interesting if it were to be attached to a fence or a wall as a permanent fixture in any play space.

Take a moment to look at the items that make up this busy board.  There are simple things, such as the mirror in the lower right corner, and much more complex items like the old lock and the accompanying skeleton keys hanging right near it.  Each item is either open-ended, like the chalkboard in the center, or specific in purpose, such as the numbered press lights. (Look carefully, and you can see the spaces where the other three press lights used to be. The kindergartner of the house wanted to build a robot and thought that the lights would work well in his overall design.)

Nearly all of the objects on the board support early math learning in one way or another.  For very young children, opportunities to explore relational concepts such as “on/off,” “open/closed,” “in/out,” and “locked/unlocked” are strewn around the board. Other items focus on other math areas.  The kitchen timer supports early understandings of measurement.  It has the added benefit of ringing when time is up. The stacking rings ask children to use their sequencing skills.  There are hooks around the board that allow you to hang a bag for chalk, or keys to locks.  This design asks that children match their use with other items on the board.

There are latches that slide, buttons to press, knobs that turn, a wheel to spin, and bells to ring.  Each of these actions asks that children consider spatial relationships, and develop ideas about how things work. It is a place for exploration, a place to build and test hypothesis.  If done right, a board like this can meet the developmental needs of a range of children. Yes, toddlers can stay “busy” playing at the board, but older children can also explore the items in ways that are meaningful and appropriate for their ages and stages as well.

How to build a Busy Board

Use 3/4 inch plywood (make it thick enough that screws don’t come out of the back).  Have it cut to size.

Paint the board with a nontoxic indoor/outdoor paint.

Go into you basement, garage, junk drawer or workshop and look for items that might work on the board.

Sort them.

Look for old toys that can be repurposed, like these stacking rings.

Make a list of items that you would like to include and create a “Wish List” of items you can send out to your families.  You might be surprised what people have laying around.

Gather the items. 

Lay out the items on the board and make sure that there is enough space between each item so they can be manipulated.

Secure each item to the board so it is safely adhered and can’t be pulled off.

Enjoy your board!

Here’s a list of items I think would work well.  Some may not work for an outdoor board, but you might make those removable. What can we add to the list?

Thermometer

Any type of clock

Calculator

Wall telephone (A rotary phone would be cool)

Latches

Locks

Pulleys

Push lights

Switches

Wheels

Mirror

A magnet board – magnets

Knobs

Buckles

Locks (with and without keys)

Hooks and eyes

“Oh, did you drop your _______?”

What fun it is for the child to drop the same item again and again, exploring the depths of her caregiver’s patience.  Exploring the concepts of “where?” and “how far?” are a very young child’s entrance into the world of spatial sense.

Children develop spatial thinking the skills associated with imagining objects in different positions as well as their movements – over a long period of time and are  necessary building blocks in constructing logico-mathematical knowledge.

How do we support these emerging skills?  As with all other mathematical concepts, the introduction of vocabulary is one sure way to begin and reinforce the ideas.  When you present a puzzle for a young child to solve, be sure to support his attempts with spatial language such as; “try it upside-down,” “turn it over,” “move the piece up or down,” etc. You can also support these emerging concepts by playing games, presenting challenges, using math manipulatives, and in dramatic play.

Try hiding an important toy in the classroom and then give spatial clues so the children can search for it.  Hide an object in the sand table and create a simple map that leads the children to the treasure.  Play “hotter and colder” as children try to locate an item.  Later, tangrams and more sophisticated puzzles will challenge the children’s thinking and support their growing spatial sense.

Goal 9 begins looking at geometry and spatial relations and is first explored by Learning Standard A – Recognize, name and replicate common shapes.

The Benchmarks are:

9.A.ECa  Recognize and name common two- and three- dimensional shapes, and describe some of their attributes.

9.A.ECb  Sort collections of two- and three- dimensional shapes by type (e.g., triangles, rectangles, circles, cubes, spheres, pyramids).

9.A.ECc  Idfentify and name some of the faces of common three-dimensional shapes using two-dimensional shape names.

9.A.ECd  Combine two-dimensional shapes to create new shapes.

9.A.ECe  Think about/imagine how altering the spatial orientation of a shape will change how it looks.

Example Performance Indicators

Identify the shape of various items in the classroom (e.g., state that the clock is shaped like a circle or that the table top is a rectangle).

Describe the attributes of common two-dimensional shapes (e.g., state that a square has four sides and a triangle has three sides).

Match triangles to triangles, squares to squares, circles to circles, and rectangles to rectangles, even when size (or proportion, in the case of triangles and rectangles ) differs among examples.

Use common two-dimensional shapes to create representations of things in the real world (e.g., place triangles around a circle to make a “flower”).

Describe the faces of common three-dimensional shapes such as cubes and cylinders, using two-dimensional shape names, such as squares and circles.

Rotate and flip shapes, such as blocks and puzzle pieces to make them “fit”.

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This blog has looked at all sorts of ways to support this learning goal over the past 9 months.  Take a look here and here and here for some examples.

Geometry is one of those skills that can be supported naturally in the early childhood environment.  Puzzles provide opportunities for children to explore spatial relations as they turn the pieces over and around to see how the shape changes depending on the orientation of the piece.  Identifying and labeling two-dimensional shapes is a frequent question asked of children, but how frequently do you take it to the next level by exploring three-dimensional shapes?   Here and here are some ideas about how to do that.

Remember, the only way that children will meet this learning goal is if the adults in their lives provide ample opportunities for geometric exploration along with explanations of attribute qualities and mathematical vocabulary.