Let’s Make Squares Activity

Let’s Make Squares is a cooperative groupwork activity that uses popsicle sticks and the simple act of making squares to teach important communication and cooperation skills. It’s a perfect first day/week of school activity!

Looking for more first day of school activities and puzzles for your classroom? I have a giant blog post dedicated to 40+ activities for the first week of school.

Here’s a few examples of some of these engaging activities for the beginning of the school year.

• 
  Back to School Sudoku – 4×4 Puzzles with Pictures
• 
  Back to School Square Edge Matching Puzzle
• 
  Folder Area Division Logic Puzzles
• 
  Grade Level Hidden Word Puzzles
• 
  Grade Level Tangram Puzzles for First Week of School
• 
  Crayon Area Division Logic Puzzles

Activity Supplies

For the Let’s Make Squares Activity, students will need to be in groups of 4. Each group member needs three pieces (I used jumbo popsicle sticks) in a unique color from the rest of the group. If you don’t have access to colored popsicle sticks, you can also use strips of colored paper.

Groups will also need a set of directions for this team-building activity and a recording sheet.

Each group gets a bag of popsicle sticks (or colored paper strips), a set of instructions, and a recording sheet.

The recording sheet is my own addition to this activity. I decided I wanted a way for students to record their solutions as they found them instead of having to wait for me to check each of their solutions before moving on.

Plus, it gives students a way to keep track of which numbers of squares they have found and which ones they still need to find.

Instructions

Groups must work together to use all 12 sticks/strips to form various numbers of squares. Each teammate is only allowed to touch/move their color of sticks/strips. This encourages groups to work together and communicate as a group as they work through the various levels of the puzzle.

Pieces must lay flat on the table. They cannot be folded, bent, torn, or broken in any way. This is one of the reasons I chose to use colored popsicle sticks instead of colored paper.

I included a diagram of what moves are allowed/not allowed in the process of making squares on the direction page.

Sticks are always allowed to cross. They are never allowed to be stacked on top of one another or be arranged so sticks are touching one another along the long edge.

The hardest rule for students to follow is that “extras” are not allowed. This means that every stick must contribute to the making of squares.

All 12 puzzles have a solution!

Tips for Using this Activity in the Classroom

I cut some 11 inch strips from some colored cardstock to make a set of demonstration pieces to use with students on my dry erase board.

I added disc magnets to the back of each piece.

I show them that sticks are allowed to cross.

I also demonstrate the three actions that are not allowed.

What this Activity looks like in Action

Still not sure what I mean about making squares? Check out some action shots I took when I tested this activity with my senior statistics students during the last bit of the school year.

There was much debate over whether this next picture contained 4 or 5 squares! When students decided that it was actually 5 squares, this opened up an entire new window of possibilities for them.

Realizing that they could also overlap squares was another huge realization.

This Let’s Make Squares activity resulted in some great communication and collaboration. There were many exciting lightbulb moments to witness! I’m excited to use it as a first week of school activity with my students this coming year!

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