Coral Builds the Cove

Coral is a little coral, soft and bright, who lives in a warm tide-pool cove. And Coral loves to build the cove, one tile at a time!

Here is Coral’s happy rule, and it is a simple one: each new tile has to TOUCH a tile that is already there. Touching! Right next to it, side by side.

Coral put down the first tile. Plip! Then Coral looked for a spot right NEXT to it - touching - and put down another tile. Plip! And another, touching that one. Plip, plip, plip!

“Touching, touching, touching,” sang Coral. “Each new tile touches one that’s already there. That’s how the cove grows!”

And it DID grow. Tile touching tile, the little cove got bigger and bigger, all the pieces holding hands. Coral wiggled with joy. Not one tile floated off alone. Every single one touched a friend.

“If I put a tile far away, all by itself,” said Coral, “it wouldn’t be part of the cove. It would just be a lonely tile! But when each new one TOUCHES one already there - then it all grows together into one big, cozy cove.”

A grown-up can play too! Get some blocks. Put one down. Now put the next one right NEXT to it, touching. Then another, touching that. Say together: “Touching… touching… touching!” Watch how your building grows when every piece touches the last.

Coral filled the whole cove that way, one touching tile at a time, until the whole cove was built and every tile was home.

Put each new tile TOUCHING one that’s already there - that’s how the cove grows, piece by piece! That’s Coral.