How to Incorporate Manipulatives into Math Lessons

Step into any elementary school classroom and you're bound to find them on shelves and in closets--pattern blocks, counting bears, tens sticks and unifix cubes. But if your math manipulatives are stuck on a shelf or buried in the closet, your students probably aren't getting the most they could out of your math lessons. It's been proven time and time again that children learn better when they can visualize a concept. To help them visualize mathematical ideas, teachers need to incorporate manipulatives into their math lessons.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• exploration time
• rules about manipulative use
• unifix cubes
• counting caddy/straws
• pattern blocks
• counting bears

1. 

   Incorporate the use of straws and a counting caddy in your calendar. The counting caddy is a simple three-pocketed pouch in which one pocket represents ones, one represents tens and the third represents hundreds. Place a straw in the tens pocket each new day of school and teach your students how to "exchange" a bundle of ten for one ten-straw. You will also place a numeral card under each pocket to indicate how many of each you have--the resulting numeral indicates the number of days you've been in school and shows place value.

2. 

   Teach simple addition and subtraction using unifix cubes. Have the students link together a certain number of cubes and then remove or add a certain number more to visualize the problem. You can also write problems on index cards and have the students show you the unifix cube representation.

3. Use the unifix cubes to teach place value. Ask students to create a "ten stick" and as they do addition problems have them trade in ten single cubes for a "ten stick." They can easily see how ten individual cubes combine to make one "ten."

4. 

   Create math lessons about shapes and patterns using pattern blocks. The blocks are perfect for visualizing the relationship between shapes, the number of sides each shape has and how they can fit together to create simple patterns. Plus, they easily lend themselves to creating patterns with varied elements--color, shape and size.

5. 

   Make ordinal numbers fun with your counting bears. Have students make a "bear parade" and ask them to place certain colors or sizes in first, second, third and fourth places. The bears can also be used to teach basic number concepts.Students can easily see that 5 big bears is the same amount as 5 little bears or that 5 blue bears are the same as 5 red bears.

Tips & Warnings

• Create and present some clear rules as to how you expect students to handle the manipulatives. For example, it may be necessary to have set signal (a bell, clap) that indicates "hands off." Younger students, believe it or not, may need to be reminded that manipulatives don't belong in their mouths.