mystika1 Posted July 23, 2010 Share Posted July 23, 2010 Hi, I am looking to get my 3 year old her own manipulatives. She is always trying to take our mus blocks away during math time. Any suggestions? Thanks, Penny Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aoife Posted July 23, 2010 Share Posted July 23, 2010 counting bears with colored cups for sorting and other activities. My DS LOVED them when he was younger and really latched onto the concepts. We also loved cuisenaire rods even tho miquon never really worked for us. :tongue_smilie: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dmmetler Posted July 23, 2010 Share Posted July 23, 2010 Pattern blocks are wonderful, and there are a ton of printable pictures for them to match on the various preschool teacher sites. Also, a set of colored counters in a favorite shape for sorting, patterning, non-standard measurement, basic addition and subtraction, graphing, and a ton of other skills. My DD's favorites were frogs. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sue G in PA Posted July 23, 2010 Share Posted July 23, 2010 Not sure I would call these manipulatives, but my 2yo and 4yo love the Lauri toys (pegs, shape puzzles, etc.) and will play with them for hours. Unifix cubes are also a favorite b/c they snap together very easily. The boys love to make light sabers with them. :glare: And, as prev. mentioned, pattern blocks, cuisenaire rods, counting bears (or other animals, objects). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tiredbuthappy Posted July 23, 2010 Share Posted July 23, 2010 Pattern blocks are wonderful, and there are a ton of printable pictures for them to match on the various preschool teacher sites. :iagree: Also, instead of buying those cute and colorful, yet expensive, counting bears with the cups, we have a bunch of assorted buttons (less than $2 a pack at walmart) and some various containers for sorting by color and size. My ds3 loves playing with these, but now that ds1 is toddling everywhere, I have to be super careful about dropped buttons! I think they might go away for awhile. lol Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ereks mom Posted July 23, 2010 Share Posted July 23, 2010 EK liked Unifix cubes because they connect. I liked foam cubes because they are quiet! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blue Hen Posted July 23, 2010 Share Posted July 23, 2010 Start saving the plastic milk bottle lids and use them as a manipulative. I also saved them from OJ bottles. Their diameters are large too! Carole Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mom2denj Posted July 23, 2010 Share Posted July 23, 2010 Mighty Mind. My 3 yr old loved these. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MyLittleWonders Posted July 23, 2010 Share Posted July 23, 2010 My PreK'er loves pattern blocks. He builds robots to then knock over, plus he does some of the different pattern block pictures I have bought and/or printed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
In2why Posted July 23, 2010 Share Posted July 23, 2010 Geoboard and some rubber bands. My littlest has the best time and learned so many shapes just by playing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shinyhappypeople Posted July 23, 2010 Share Posted July 23, 2010 Start saving the plastic milk bottle lids and use them as a manipulative. I also saved them from OJ bottles. Their diameters are large too! Carole I really like this idea! My girls have enjoyed playing with loose change, c-rods, the geoboard, a huge plastic toy clock and patten blocks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Julie Kirkwood Posted July 23, 2010 Share Posted July 23, 2010 Geoboard and some rubber bands. My littlest has the best time and learned so many shapes just by playing. Haha, we just got two of these today and my 6 and 4 year olds spent hours playing with them! Even my toddler played with them for a bit. What fun! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flobee76 Posted July 23, 2010 Share Posted July 23, 2010 Lauri Toys: Toddler pack, pegs/ pegboard... anything from them! Mighty Minds Cuisenaire rods pattern blocks LEGO DUPLOS!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kesmom Posted July 23, 2010 Share Posted July 23, 2010 Pattern blocks, counting bears and Lauri Fit-a-space are probably the most popular in our house. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kathkath Posted July 23, 2010 Share Posted July 23, 2010 :iagree: counting bears with colored cups for sorting and other activities. My DS LOVED them when he was younger and really latched onto the concepts. We also loved cuisenaire rods even tho miquon never really worked for us. :tongue_smilie: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Momma H Posted July 23, 2010 Share Posted July 23, 2010 Can anyone tell me what Mighty Minds are? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skueppers Posted July 23, 2010 Share Posted July 23, 2010 Mighty Mind is a puzzle game similar to tangrams or pattern blocks. It consists of a collection of plastic pieces in different shapes and colors, and a sequence of ordered challenges that get progressively more difficult. It's a lot of fun, though I get turned off by their marketing hype. http://www.mightymind.com/ We have both the Mighty Mind and the Super Mind set. It's useful to us to have two sets of the plastic pieces, so two kids can work on the puzzles simultaneously. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shelly in VA Posted July 23, 2010 Share Posted July 23, 2010 The dollar spot at Target right now has foam cubes - I picked up 3 packages (one cubes, one pyramids, one balls) for $1 each this past week. Bright colors, thick foam, and hopefully some quiet playtime for my 4yo! Shelly Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
krisandpaula Posted July 23, 2010 Share Posted July 23, 2010 Pattern Blocks Counting Bears in 3 sizes Letter Tiles puzzibits Pop Beads and then MUS blocks, legos, and our new favorite are the foam cubes, cylinders and pyramids from the $1.00 spot at Target. (teacher tools out now!) And fyi for anyone looking for Mighty Mind sets, I have seen them recently at our local TJMaxx, so you might check the toy dept. there if you have one in your area. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheCoffeeChick Posted July 23, 2010 Share Posted July 23, 2010 My dd's favorite ones from the past 2 years are: colored bears & cups and printouts of patterns to follow; lacing cards; pattern blocks & printed out patterns to follow; dominoes; geo-board with rubberbands; and balance scale. Kelly's Kindergarten has printouts for the colored bears and the pattern blocks. I got so many ideas from the 1+1+1=1 blog - I especially loved her Tot Trays. She has a TON of ideas for keeping little ones entertained. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Holly Posted July 23, 2010 Share Posted July 23, 2010 My DD loves teddy bear counters, pattern blocks, and geoboards. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MerryAtHope Posted July 23, 2010 Share Posted July 23, 2010 Pattern Blocks Cuisenaire Rods Counting Bears Base 10 blocks Her own set of MUS blocks :). My dd used to play with math manipulatives all the time! Merry :-) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mamato3 all-boy boys Posted July 23, 2010 Share Posted July 23, 2010 Anything from Lauri Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vonfirmath Posted July 24, 2010 Share Posted July 24, 2010 The dollar spot at Target right now has foam cubes - I picked up 3 packages (one cubes, one pyramids, one balls) for $1 each this past week. Bright colors, thick foam, and hopefully some quiet playtime for my 4yo! Shelly I got those too (my son picked up a package of the balls in the store and would not let go, drawing my attention to them)! Just trying to figure out what to do with them now :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Amber in AUS Posted July 24, 2010 Share Posted July 24, 2010 LOL, i was so inspired by this thread i set up some stuff for my little DD :D I put some pics on my blog, link in sig. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NanceXToo Posted July 24, 2010 Share Posted July 24, 2010 I'll put in another vote for both a geoboard and rubberbands (we made our own homemade geoboard- well, my husband did. I just showed him a pattern and asked him to lol), and for pattern blocks. My 4 year old enjoys both of those things. P.S. You can google "how to make your own geoboard" and find a few different ones that are pretty easy to make. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NanceXToo Posted July 24, 2010 Share Posted July 24, 2010 LOL, i was so inspired by this thread i set up some stuff for my little DD :D I put some pics on my blog, link in sig. I just took a peek... I love it! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
againes Posted July 24, 2010 Share Posted July 24, 2010 Use whatever minipulatives you will be using in K. Let them play with them and understand them and bond with them. My 3rd child hauled cuisenaire rods in dump trucks, built towers with them, made roads with them for years before he actually started math. When he did start math with them the values and sizes and understanding of them were with him deeply. It was almost like taking friends to math class! We loved Miquion. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
duckens Posted July 25, 2010 Share Posted July 25, 2010 MONEY! Specifically, a cup of pennies. I made pricetags for dd's Thomas trains, and we played store. (1cent to 10 cents). It was dd's favorite activity of the week! We also love our colored bears. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bairnmama Posted July 25, 2010 Share Posted July 25, 2010 The favorite at our house was the Tall-Stacker Pegs Building Set from Lauri. Ds spent hours upon hours building with this. Like pp's said, we also got lots of mileage from unifix cubes, cuisenaire rods, and simple colored square tiles. Oh, and don't forget dominos. We have a set of double 12 that allows lots of number matching and allows for larger buildings. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EppieJ Posted July 25, 2010 Share Posted July 25, 2010 You've already been given several of our favorites (pattern blocks, counting bears, geo boards, unifix cubes...) I am a former preschool teacher and we used all of those things in our classroom. Other manips include tangrams (pattern blocks & tangrams also have activity books/cards that can be used with them). File Folder games are fabulous - a google search will give you tons of ideas. Puzzles are good. Another favorite were "Treasure Boxes". These are small containers of the same size (think ziplock) with various items that can be used for counting, sorting, patterning, etc. One box might have buttons (someone mentioned those already), another might contain colored paper clips, or linking shapes, pop beads, keys....pretty much anything you can think of can be a manipulative. Another thing I used with my son is called Funtastic Frogs. There are different colored plastic frogs that accompany a workbook for learning patterning and number relationships. This is a great stage! Have lots of fun! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kirch Posted July 25, 2010 Share Posted July 25, 2010 You might not think of wikki stix as manipulatives per say, but they've been a big hit at our house and can be useful both in free play and learning--shapes, numbers, letters, etc. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rousselab Posted July 25, 2010 Share Posted July 25, 2010 Lauri ABC puzzles and other toys by Lauri Jumbo Stacking Pegs Toy trains/cars Puzzles Wooden lacing beads Large bowl of rice or pasta with spoons, cups, toys, etc. in it Playdoh Clay Quercetti Fantacolor Junior!! Beans in a bowl with spoon the transfer to another bowl Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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