This is true even of his earliest acts, such as stretching, smiling,
etc. Although these are merely impulsive movements without conscious
purpose, the child soon forms ideas of different acts, and readily
associates these with other ideas. Thus he takes a delight in the mere
functioning of muscles, hands, voice, etc., in expressive movements. As
he develops, however, on account of the close association, during his
early years, between thought and movement, the child is much interested
in any knowledge which may be presented to him in direct association
with motor activity. This fact is especially noticeable in that the
efforts of a child to learn a strange object consist largely in
endeavouring to discover what he can do with it. He throws, rolls,
strikes, strives _to_ open it, and in various other ways makes it a
means of physical expression. Whenever, especially, he can discover the
use of an object, as to cut with knife or scissors, to pound with a
hammer, to dip with a ladle, or to sweep with a broom, this social
significance of the object gives him full satisfaction, and little
attention is paid to other qualities. For these reasons the teacher will
find it advantageous, whenever possible, to associate a lesson problem
directly with some form of physical action. In primary number work, for
example, instead of presenting the child with mere numbers and symbols,
the teacher may provide him with objects, in handling which he may
associate the number facts with certain acts of grouping objects. It is
in this way that a child should approach such problems as:

How many fours are there in twelve?
How many feet in a yard?
How many quarts in a peck? etc.

The teaching of fractions by means of scissors and cardboard; the
teaching of board measure by having boards actually measured; the