Brown Stair

Materials:

• 10 prisms of the same length (20cm), but differing in breadth and height from 10cm x 10cm x 20cm to 1cm x 1cm x 20cm; brown in color

• Rug 

• A place on the shelf where the stairs can be viewed from the side and front

Purposes:

• Visual discrimination of dimension (thickness)

• Refinement of voluntary movement

• Indirect Preparation of the Mathematical Mind

Age: 3 - 3 ½

Preparation: The child has worked with the Pink Tower

Presentation: 

• Invite the child for a lesson on the Brown Stairs. 

• Have the child get a rug and unroll it onto the floor

• Take the narrowest prism to the right side of the rug using the fingertips of the dominant hand with the other hand flat underneath to support it.

• After you bring a few to the rug, let the child help to bring them.

• Once all are on the rug, sit on your knees with the child to your left.

• Emphasize “the looking” for the broadest prism and place it at the top left side of the rug.

• Set the next largest in front of the previous and run your hands down the sides.  

• Continue in this manner all the way toward you to the narrowest.

• When finished, stand with the child, and look at the stair from all angles.

• Dismantle by setting the prisms at random on the right side of the rug and invite.

• When the child is done, remind them to dismantle the stair before putting it away.

Control of Error: The child’s own judgment/visual discrimination of disharmony 

Language: Thick-thin, broad-narrow, Superlatives: thickest/thinnest & Comparatives: thicker than/thinner than

Following Exercises:

• Unit of Measure: Move the smallest prism up the stairs and run your finger along the edge where they meet. After a few, invite the child.

• Invite the child to build it blindfolded (stereognostic sense).

Memory Games:

• Distance Games-scattered on one rug and constructed one at a time on a rug far away

• Comparative Language Games (“Bring me a prism that is thicker than/thinner than this one.”)

• Group Game: 5-10 children (“Who thinks they have the next one?”)

Pedagogical Notes:

• The prisms are in a state of chaos on the right and brought to order in front of the child on the left.

• The children are free to explore the material to come up with their own variations, but they must be able to build the tower properly first.

• It is okay to suggest that they work with the Brown Stair and the Pink Tower together.

• Do not use cue cards for the children to match for variations.

• You may hear of this material being called the Broad Stair.