math manipulatives

[faithfull]

What sorts of manipulatives have you found really useful in aiding your child's early understanding of math concepts?

[jenbrdsly]

Welcome to Hive! We have the Right Start Level C box, which was really expensive but worth it. There are also a lot of "real world" math manipulatives you can use for kids which are free. Peanut butter and MnMs for fractions etc... I have some ideas on cheap math stuff here.

 

I don't know if you have read Well Trained Mind yet, but the authors also have a lot of good ideas for real world math at different age levels. That's a good place to look for ideas too. Chapter 6 deals with younger kids and math.

[Kuovonne]

RightStart's AL Abacus

Cuisenaire Rods

Base 10 Blocks

[HollyB]

RightStart's AL Abacus

Cuisenaire Rods

Base 10 Blocks

 

We use these as well. My daughter prefers the base ten blocks.

[5LittleMonkeys]

An abacus, all of the MUS manipulatives, base ten grouping sticks and skittles.;)

[JenniferLynn]

The RightStart AL Abacus (though it took me awhile to appreciate it)

Tiles/Legos/pennies are popular here

Tally sticks/popsicle sticks

[Stellalarella]

Cuisinaire Rods and MUS blocks. They are very similar.

The MUS blocks really have been wonderful.

[Aurelia]

RightStart's AL Abacus

Cuisenaire Rods

Base 10 Blocks

 

:iagree: Also, M&Ms and a judy clock because we don't have an analog clock at our house.

[Farrar]

Nothing like some M&M's. They make math easier.

[peacefully]

.

[Caterpiller]

We havent started yet but I plan on using what we already have, though I may buy some linking cubes (mostly because I like to play with them. :lol:)

 

Things I plan on using are:

 

Buttons

Beads

Food (marshmallows, carrot sticks, raisens, chocolate chips, dry beans)

Lincoln logs

mega blocks

my little ponys (we have a lot and she loves them. xD so why not.)

Checker/connect four peices

Dice

Dominos

[ednkirstin]

Base Ten Blocks (if I had to buy again, I'd definitely get one that connect together.

A cheap clock from Walmart

Pattern blocks

[....]

We constantly use Cuisinaire Rods (but we do Miquon and Singapore). We also use those plastic geometric shapes for everything but math (they keep coming in handy during science or entertaining the 3 yro). :D

[MyLittleBears]

Cuisinaire Rods and MUS blocks. They are very similar.

The MUS blocks really have been wonderful.

 

We love MUS blocks with the number street poster to teach place value. This can probably be done with just base ten blocks or cuisenaire rods and making your own poster. The ones live in the smallest house on the right, but only nine can live there before they have to move if you an one more to make ten. Once a nine becomes a ten they have to move next door to the tall tens' house, and again, only nine tens can live there until they become 100 or 10 tens, then they move to the giant hundreds castle on the left side of number street, where again, only nine one hundreds can live. It's amazing how easily children understand place value when it's presented this way!

Edited August 14, 2011 by MyLittleBears

[Chris in VA]

For preschool ages, I focus on skills like sorting by one, two, or more attributes; counting; noticing similarities and differences; numeral recognition; sequencing; patterning; more/less; and measurement, which can be standard or nonstandard at this level.

 

So, we found tons of things to sort--real world objects, like seashells and rocks and buttons; toys, like plastic animals (sort by habitat, color, fur/skin, bigger than me/littler than me, carnivorous/herbaceous/omnivorus, oviporous/nonoviporus, 4 legs/two legs, etc); pictures of items; erasers; stickers on poker chips (to make them sturdy), etc.

 

We used sequence cards, and told funny sequence stories (tell a story out of sequence, reorder it). I had dd tell me all the steps to making a pb sandwich, and then followed them to the letter (she had me spread the pb on bread before I opened the bag, for instance! We still laugh about that).

 

 

We made patterns with pattern blocks, cubes, hand claps, teddy bear counters, etc. We used cut out shapes, too, and attribute blocks.

 

We counted EVERYTHING--and graphed a lot, too. My sil used a hand-held metal clicker with her dd, and mine got one last year--great fun to keep track of red cars, cows in fields you pass, times your mom says a certain word...

 

Measuring cups and spoons were a big hit. Lots of times we played "how many ---will fit in a ---" with standard and nonstandard measuring. We also liked plastic chain links, which we'd meaure with (how long are you, how tall is the dog, how many links go around the front yard tree, can you make a chain equal to mine/shorter/longer/the same.

 

We also did a lot of puzzles to get practice with whole-part relationships.

 

Many of these skills overlap with science and reading, as you can see.

[stripe]

A big box of buttons from my mom.

 

We can sort, use as counters, and they're neat to look at.

 

I also had fun with them making small balls of clay and putting them on a skewer, ten at a time, to demonstrate the decimal system. Idea from Arithmetic for Parents by Ron Aharoni.

 

Per WTM, I bought the container of shapes. Whatever those are called. Also fun to play with, make patterns with.

[almondbutterandjelly]

Centimeter cubes, flat plastic 1" squares (colorful), Feet by the Foot, Yard stick, Meter stick. Balance. Customary weight sets that include ounce and pound. Metric weight set that includes gram and kilogram. Customary liquid measurement set with gallon, quart, etc. Similar set for metric liquid measurement.

[happypamama]

My children have liked the Cuisenaire rods, plus hundreds flats and a big thousands cube. We've also gotten a fair amount of use out of plastic fraction circles and squares. Nasco sells a set of circles that go around the fraction circles that have percents, angles, and some other things on them; they help illustrate that 1/4 is 25%, 15 minutes, etc.