smalltown mom Posted August 1, 2009 Share Posted August 1, 2009 Ok, so I got my instructor's guide for SM the other day, and now it tells me that I need a base-10 set, number discs, linking cubes, etc. Anyone have any ideas of where I can get these things cheap, or maybe a good toy or homemade substitute for manipulatives??? I have no more money to spend!! :confused::confused: (Or, at least, very little left). Oh, and where can I find a good used microscope?? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bethben Posted August 1, 2009 Share Posted August 1, 2009 If you're in level 1, we used popsicle sticks and rubber bands for our base ten set. If I had been able to find poker chips (or something similar), that would have worked for the discs. The blocks we found we did not really need. beth Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AudreyTN Posted August 1, 2009 Share Posted August 1, 2009 I use linking cubes for the base 10 and poker chips for the discs. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EKS Posted August 1, 2009 Share Posted August 1, 2009 If the microscope is for a little kid, I would recommend getting a good pocket microscope over a full sized table microscope. You can get them at Home Science Tools fairly inexpensively. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
smalltown mom Posted August 1, 2009 Author Share Posted August 1, 2009 Thanks for the help! Actually, we'll be going into 4A with my 5th grader. He's been p.s.'d up til this year, so I think we need to do some catch-up. Hopefully we can get through the 4 levels quickly, though. Do they never really need the base-10 blocks? Or if they do, is it earlier rather than later (or vice versa)? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hmschooling Posted August 1, 2009 Share Posted August 1, 2009 You shouldn't need to get any manipulatives at that age...I would say use the text for a pictorial of the concept, then if he needs something hands-on for it, use something you already have. In 2B, we've used snacks and such, stories like: division: draw an island on a piece of paper, two crackers are the boats and the raisins are the people. 20 people on the island need to escape on the boats, but they have to be in equal numbers....you get the idea. Then you can turn it around to relate multiplication....2 boats, each has 10 people....that's 20. For 3A, I got those colored yard sale price stickers at wal-mart and wrote place value on them (the numbers for ones up to ten-thousands...). Then I didn't unstick them from the backing and cut them up into individual pieces. This is our place value chips. I then drew 4 or 5 equal sections on a piece of construction paper and labled the placevalues on top, laminated it, and this is our chart for our manipulative using the place value chips to add/subt... You really don't have to spend any money....I rely on manipulatives for math up to about 3rd grade, but after that I would like to wean them from needing them and focus on really picturing it and doing it on paper and mentally without having to have their hands on something. There's just some concepts that it really helps though, so just make something! ETA: We also make use of Cuisinare Rods at times since we have those and that's been nice to have, but certainly easy enough to use something else. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ohdanigirl Posted August 1, 2009 Share Posted August 1, 2009 They sell the disks a Walmart near the crayons. The will be with the counting bears for a few $ or at GW school supply if you have one near buy. I reall thin the sticks will work fine as your base ten. You may want to skim through the book and look at the pages where it is needed, it will help you decide if your child really will need it, or if you can substitute. You may be able to just draw a base ten block on some flash cards (like RS-math), if you don't have the money I really don't think you should run out and spend it. Good luck. Danielle Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
smalltown mom Posted August 1, 2009 Author Share Posted August 1, 2009 I REALLY appreciate all of the great ideas!! Thank you. BTW, I have some cuisinare rods How do you use them? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mary in MN Posted August 2, 2009 Share Posted August 2, 2009 We used our cuisenaire rods occasionally with Singapore, on an as needed basis. They're useful in figuring out fractions, looking at multiplication, making squares when you're discussing square numbers etc. We've used them with word problems too, to break down those bars Singapore always uses .... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hmschooling Posted August 2, 2009 Share Posted August 2, 2009 I REALLY appreciate all of the great ideas!! Thank you. BTW, I have some cuisinare rods How do you use them? You can use them will all the basic operations-- dd really likes them from multiplying, fractions, bars for the word problems (awesome for this!), perimeter, area, greater than/less than, etc. I know I have a little booklet that gives how to actually do it...don't know where it is. I bet you can google it! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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