Grid Coordinates on a 10x10 Grid: A Hundred Squares

A hundred empty squares wait on this 2nd grade grid-coordinates page, ten across lettered A to J and ten down numbered 1 to 10, with the same small worked example beside them showing B2 shaded on a three-by-three grid. The key underneath is longer than on the smaller version: a red swatch with about two dozen chips, F4, B5, D3 and on through the list, then a brown swatch with five more, D10, D7, C10, D9 and D8. The child locates each square by its letter and number and colors it in the group color.

Doubling the grid does more than add squares. The columns now run past the halfway point of the alphabet, so a child cannot count the letters on one hand, and a row like 7 sits far enough from both edges that the finger has to travel carefully rather than land by feel. Two colors keep the sorting manageable while the locating gets harder. The codes on this sheet stay in the left and middle columns, so the last two columns finish the page still blank, and a child who has been coloring squares out on the right has misread the letter axis rather than the number.

Print the PDF free and ask for the letter to be found first and the finger held on it while the number is counted down, which is the habit that survives into coordinates on a graph. Crossing off each chip is close to essential at thirty codes. The 6x6 version is the same task on a grid a child can take in at a glance and is where to begin. Reading a calendar uses the same across-and-down table reading in a form the child will meet on the wall every day.