Puzzle: use five rectangles to make a square. The rectangles must have sides of 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 and 10, in any combination.
There are four possible solutions. The afghan shows one of them. It is ideal for teaching children to count and begin to understand the concepts of multiplication and area.
Each of the first ten counting numbers is shown on the side of one of the rectangles.
Go on to count the number of squares in each rectangle. Children will gradually assimilate that 7 rows of 4 and 4 rows of 7 both give the answer of 28.
Compare the number of squares inside the rectangles to introduce the ideas of ‘bigger than’, ‘longer than’, ‘shorter than’, etc. to introduce the idea of area. Many children think that a long skinny rectangle is ‘bigger’ than a short fat one, even when the area is much smaller.
