TWO

OBSERVING TWO WITH YOUNG CHILDREN

Observing two includes exploring geometric expressions of two, i.e., lines between two points.

INTRODUCTORY ACTIVITIES

1. Have a table with natural and other characteristic objects for children to look at and gently touch. Make a ceremony of the placement of any new object or its picture to help create interest (e.g., stick, asparagus, leek, palm leaf, green bean, walking-stick insect).
2. “What do you know about two?” (e.g., two hands, two eyes, two ears, two legs)
3. Play “I Spy with My Little Eye,” finding straight/curvy/zigzag lines throughout the room.
4. Challenge children to make straight/curvy/zigzag lines with their bodies. Two children sitting opposite each other on the floor and touching feet create a line. A length of yarn pulled between them is a line.
5. Chant, “Two, four, six, eight, who do we appreciate?” Extend by naming friends and how they are appreciated.

LIFE SKILLS

• Sort a collection of sticks according to size or color.
• Thread two beads (green) onto a pipe cleaner or length of string and fashion into jewelry.
• Stitch along linear cards.
• Cut along a straight path.
• Learn to stitch a two-hole button.
• Use a straight edge to create a straight path between two points.

SENSORIAL EXPLORATION

• Invite finger-tracing of various lines (e.g., edges of a table, book, box, rickrack).
• Place tape to create a line on the floor; invite children to various exercises (e.g., walking, sitting, ball rolling).
• Draw straight/curvy/zigzag lines in a tray of sand or shaving cream.
• “Draw” lines with your finger in the palm of child’s hand or on his back.
• Draw lines in the air using long, broad strokes, with or without ribbons; alternate arms.
• Feel sandpaper lines and sandpaper numeral two; make crayon rubbings of the same.
• Create lines on a rubber band geo-board.
• Explore patterning properties of various lines, straight/curvy/zigzag.
• Lift a two-pound weight.

MATH

• Explore a basket containing two of various items (e.g., two beads, two pencils, two apples).
• Name items that the child can find and bring to you on a tray (“Please bring me two…”).
• Display currency units of choice (e.g., two dollars, two euros, two yen, two pesos).
• Count various objects in room by twos. (Counting and skip counting songs are available.)
• Display and work with units of measure (e.g., two ounces, two pounds, two inches, two feet, two meters, two minutes, two hours).
• Work with concept of even and odd numbers.

LANGUAGE

• Read aloud picture books that harmonize with the number two theme (e.g., One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish by Dr. Seuss; Two of Everything: A Chinese Folktale by Lily Toy Hong; The Two Cars by Ingri and Edgar D’Aulaire; Exactly the Opposite by Tana Hoban; Opposites by Robert Crowther).
• Invite child to the nature table and engage child in conversation about the objects on display; have child write about the objects (teacher may write child’s words); invite child to “read” his story to his friends.
• Trace along a straight edge to create a straight path between two points (pre-writing skill).
• Trace printed, broken lines (straight, curvy, or zigzag) off or on writing lines (pre-writing skill); extend into connect-the-two-dots activities.
• Pin-punch lines across a piece of paper (pre-writing skill).
• Provide materials for children to make little books about two. Include pictures (e.g., cake with two candles, a fish tank with two fish).
• Explore sign language for two and line.
• Have children identify opposites (e.g., hot/cold, happy/sad, up/down, over/under, wet/dry).
• Name “pairs” (e.g., pair of shoes, pair of glasses).
• Add relevant words to Word Wall (e.g., two, second, line); Greek and Latin prefixes (e.g., di—as in dicotyledon, bi—as in binoculars); include related pictures of natural and man-made constructs.
• Present types of lines and add to Word Wall (e.g., parallel, bisecting, diagonal).
• Add to three-part card activities (e.g., parallel lines, perpendicular lines, diagonal lines).
• Explore phrases (e.g., “two-finger touch,” “two peas in a pod,” “Two heads are better than one”).

CULTURE

• Spotlight the words for two as you learn to count together, one to ten, in other languages.
• Look for expressions of two on a variety of flags (e.g., Indonesian, Ukrainian, Haitian).
• Share expressions of two elsewhere in various cultures (e.g., yin and yang).

History and Timelines

• Add to the linear display of calendar months; guide understanding of two months.
• Add to the linear display of photographs of a child; add one from his or her second birthday—continuing concept of a lifetime.
• Refer to a linear timeline of the ages and find the early civilizations of Egypt, the Americas, and Islam; explore work of the ancient craftsmen who used geometry extensively, both structurally and symbolically; focus on two and the geometric expressions of two.

Art and Music

• Invite child to the nature table and engage child in conversation about the objects on display; have child draw/map the objects to create a still life.
• Print lines using the edges of various items (e.g., cardboard, pencil).
• Glue string or yarn to a canvas or similar surface, straight/curvy/zigzag.
• Explore what can be created with line art; read Harold and the Purple Crayon by Crockett Johnson.
• Cut or pin-punch lines across a piece of paper; extend into a weaving exercise.
• Explore patterning properties of various lines, straight/curvy/zigzag.
• Provide coloring sheet with linear patterns.
• Marble-roll paint onto paper in a long, narrow pan or box.
• Look for lines within selected pieces of art (e.g., stained glass, paintings, furniture by Charles Rennie Mackintosh; Rippled Surface by M.C. Escher); show pictures of dancers creating lines with their bodies.
• Introduce negative and positive space.
• Sing and dance (e.g., “My Dog Rags,” add second verse to “The Ants Go Marching”); pair dancing, line dancing.
• Play with rhythm sticks.
• Introduce a performance by two instrumentalists, singers, or dancers as a duet or duo.

Science

• Work with magnets to see that opposite poles attract each other, and like poles repel.
• Work with items that float and other items that sink.
• Explore Newton’s law of motion--For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.
• Make rain in a jar to demonstrate that when cool, dry air penetrates warm, wet air, it rains.
• Use battery to show that both positive and negative charges are needed to complete an electric current.
• Look at the Periodic Table of Elements; two is the atomic number of helium.

Astronomy

• Define equinox and solstice.
• Look at pictures of various constellations and note the straight lines.

Botany/Zoology/Human Body

• Name body parts that come in pairs (e.g., eyes, ears, arms, feet).
• Sort pictures or objects, “living” and “non-living.”
• Sort pictures or objects, “plants” and “animals.”
• Sort pictures or objects, “vertebrates” and “invertebrates.”
• Examine lodge-pole, pine-tree needles bundled in twos; also, maple-tree seedpods are often paired.

ADDITIONAL ACTIVITIES

1. Have children find an expression of two outside (e.g., rocks, leaves, worms).
2. Invite pairs of children to sit on the patio and roll a ball to each other; talk about the shape expressed, i.e., a line.
3. Introduce game of chess.
4. Make “binoculars” from cardboard tubing.
5. Children would have fun trying a slackline outside. 

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• Classroom and home photos

• Books
• Educational materials 
• Items and activities that can enhance the number theme

Asparagus sprig

Measuring a straight line

Yin and yang

Duet

"He made a long straight path so he wouldn't get lost. And he set off on his walk, taking his big purple crayon with him."

". . . And ONE and TWO-O, they're a DUO."

Two is the atomic number of helium.