Cuisenaire Rods?

[twoxcell]

I just bought a set of these off Ebay. All the talk on here about them intrigued me. The question is what do I do with them once they arrive.:lol:

They did come with a book.

[FO4UR]

Play!

 

Then, let your dc have a turn.:tongue_smilie:

 

If you do a search for Miquon under my username, you'll find some games/ideas I've posted before.

[m0mmaBuck]

I ordered some from Rainbow Resource and also purchased this and this. I haven't received them yet but I hope it will be a fun introduction to use over the summer.

[newlifemom]

You could get the first grade diary and read it. It will give you ideas. I let my 4 yr old play with them and then we add to a rod. So if I have the yellow one [5] what rods can I put together to make the yellow.

 

Of course my older children build horse stables out of them. :tongue_smilie:

[Rivka]

Kids learn an amazing amount just by playing and building with the rods. Especially if you get a nice wooden set of rods, they sort of just call out to be handled - they have lovely deep colors and they feel good in the hand. So I would make them available for free play, and maybe do some building with your child as well.

 

Games we have played and loved with C-rods, pre Miquon:

 

Copycat. One person makes a design with rods, and the other person makes an exact copy. This is great eye and hand training for a young child. My daughter especially liked trading so that I also had to copy her designs.

 

Symmetry Game. Draw a line down the middle of a blank sheet of paper - this is your line of symmetry. Each person gets one side of the page. Take turns placing rods - the other person must put a rod on their side, reflected along the line of symmetry. (You can use a small mirror to check.)

 

Rod Detectives - Beginner. Put together the pairs of rods that make ten (i.e., that equal the orange rod in length), so that they are like two staircases - one rightside up and one upside down. This is easier to do than to describe. Take turns closing your eyes while the other person removes one or more rods from the picture. Then open your eyes and figure out what is missing. This is a great way to learn the order of the rods, as well as to cement number pairs that add up to ten.

 

Rod Detectives - Intermediate. Line up a mixed bunch of rods end-to-end to make a rectangle. Take turns closing your eyes while the other person removes one or more rods. This time you have to rely on the length of the missing spaces, and not on memorizing the sequence.

 

Rod Detectives - Advanced. This time, instead of leaving an empty space the person who removes rods fills in the space with other rods (for example, replacing a three and a four rod with a seven rod). This is great for understanding how numbers can be composed and decomposed. I also like it because whether or not the person guesses correctly, math is still learned. ("Oh, I guessed it was six and one. Hey, that makes the same amount as three and four does.")

 

Can you tell that my kid likes games where people close their eyes?

[twoxcell]

Thanks for all the game ideas :001_smile: It sounds fun, can't wait.

[Dmmetler]

My DD discovered today that the weights balance on either side of the balance scale ;). (And that the Base 10 blocks don't work right. Maybe I should have gotten the wood ones).