Red Rods Overview:
Recommended Age: 3 to 4 years
Purpose: Visual discrimination of dimensions (length) and muscular memory of length
Level of Parent Involvement: Medium, the adult must present the exercise to the child for the first time, once shown the child may work independently
Prerequisites
- None
Materials
- The paper red rods from the resource pack
- A placemat
Preparation
- None
Home Material Guide:
Steps
- Invite the child letting them know you are going to show them a version of the red rods
- Bring the paper red rods to the child’s table from the resource pack, the child may bring the placemat
- Have the child help you to place the rods on the bottom half of the placemat
- Let the child know that you are going to place the rods in order from longest to shortest
- Locate the longest rod and place it at the top of the placemat
- Locate the next longest rod and place under the first, ensuring the ends line up on the left side of the placemat
- Repeat until the rods have been ordered from longest to shortest (see video)
- At the end show the child how to check their work with the shortest rod by placing it in the space of each of the other rods
- Mix all rods at the bottom of the placemat
- Invite the child to place the rods in order
Variations
- The child may play an environment game with the rods, encouraging them to find objects from the environment which are as long as or as short as the rods
