- "Make a Square" activities extend and review "Make a Rectangle".
- In the books, the "Make a Square" activities include some cases which do not yield a square, plus some puzzles where the constant term is missing, and some where the linear (middle) term is missing. This helps students see the structure of perfect square binomials.
- After doing those activities, you can use the Squaring a Binomial applet to discuss that structure and solidify that understanding.
- And you can follow up with a writing assignment based on the Completing the Square applet.
- I wrote a teacher's guide to this topic as a mini-unit: Completing the Square.