Aspasia Posted May 21, 2012 Share Posted May 21, 2012 Just curious what everyone's preferences are and how many people use lots of different ones. We have Cuisenaire Rods and Unifix Cubes, along with lots of random little counters (mainly in the form of Target $1 section erasers). Now I'm also interested in the AL Abacus. It seems to me like different manipulatives have different advantages over others, but do you think it's too confusing to use different ones? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Momling Posted May 21, 2012 Share Posted May 21, 2012 The only manipulatives that I've used consistently over the past 5 years of teaching my kids are the base 10 blocks. They've been great for all of the operations... including dealing with long division and decimals. Cuisenaire rods were useful at first, but I don't really use them much any more. Same with fraction bars and clocks and such... Useful for a time, but after a while unnecessary. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kathryn Posted May 21, 2012 Share Posted May 21, 2012 :bigear: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
famof6 Posted May 21, 2012 Share Posted May 21, 2012 Base ten blocks and counters (a bag of polished rocks) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
woolybear Posted May 21, 2012 Share Posted May 21, 2012 Rocks, crystals, and chocolate chips. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FairProspects Posted May 21, 2012 Share Posted May 21, 2012 Nearly daily we use: Cuisenaire rods Base-10 flats Geared clock 100s chart with 5s & 10s highlighted Number line Place value cards from RS Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Karen in CO Posted May 21, 2012 Share Posted May 21, 2012 Judy Clock Yard/Meter stick chocolate chips money a deck of cards AL Abacus 3d geometric shapes Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BugsMama Posted May 21, 2012 Share Posted May 21, 2012 We use an abacus, hundreds chart, uno cards and base 10 blocks almost daily. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Heidi Posted May 21, 2012 Share Posted May 21, 2012 Fingers and chocolate chips. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slackermom Posted May 21, 2012 Share Posted May 21, 2012 So far I have used around-the-house stuff (beads, coins, poker chips, rulers) and lots of food (chocolate chips, dried beans/pasta, apples, pizza, a stick of butter). I am looking for something else at this stage, to better represent 3-D math concepts. DD really wants to use Lego bricks for this, and I am probably going to get a bunch. She will probably get more use out of them than any of the manipulative sets I've been looking at. And I love to play with them!:D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KristenR Posted May 21, 2012 Share Posted May 21, 2012 (edited) I was lucky and got a large amount of my math manipulatives from a friend of mine. I don't think I necessarily need all of these but I LOVE having them at my disposal. C-rods (plastic NON connecting kind) Base 10Flats 100 chart (I cut one out of a cheap workbook I picked up from the dollar store and laminated it.) Balance scale Counters (random assortment) Fraction towers (also decimal and percentage towers) Geoboards Pattern Blocks Geometric Solids Toy Money I recently went through my homeschooling resources and organized a majority of my things. It's nice to actually know what I have versus looking aimlessly in my house thinking to myself, "I think I have that.." Edited May 21, 2012 by KristenR Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sharilynn29 Posted May 21, 2012 Share Posted May 21, 2012 MUS blocks Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
boscopup Posted May 21, 2012 Share Posted May 21, 2012 C-rods, and I've pulled out base-10 blocks once (before we had C-rods). My oldest doesn't use manipulatives and never did. My middle one thrives on the C-rods. I have the entire RS A manipulative kit, but I never use any of them. The C-rods work better than an abacus for DS2. I'm guessing DS3 probably won't need much in the way of manipulatives either, but we'll use C-rods for K math at least. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fraidycat Posted May 21, 2012 Share Posted May 21, 2012 I have unifix cubes (use them as counters) and base ten blocks. DS mostly refuses to use anything...even the number lines in the MM workbook where he is supposed to use it. He'd rather do it all in his head - I have to force him to use the other "tools", because eventually we'll move past addition to ten and knowledge of those other tools may come in handy. :) The only time the unifix cube counters have come in handy is to help him visualize word problems. I also have a clock for when we get to that, and will possibly get toy money, if necessary. He's picking up on money just from living life, though, so it may not be necessary by the time we get there. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tsutsie Posted May 21, 2012 Share Posted May 21, 2012 MUS blocks Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LittleIzumi Posted May 22, 2012 Share Posted May 22, 2012 We use C-rods a lot, base-10 flats more now, and linking cubes on occasion. I have also pulled out fraction circles. I don't know if this counts, but I have and use laminated number cards, sign cards, shape cards, and number lines, plus laminated graph paper, dot matrices, and several hand-drawn game boards from Peggy Kaye's Games for Math. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rosie Posted May 22, 2012 Share Posted May 22, 2012 We use Cuisenaire Rods and Base Ten Flats the most. Here are some examples of how.... https://vimeo.com/educationunboxed/channels Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Five More Minutes Posted May 22, 2012 Share Posted May 22, 2012 Daily: Cuisenaire rods and base-10 flats Weekly: Fun counters (we have teddy bears; I also use M&Ms or chocolate chips) Infrequently: clocks, geometric shapes, linking cubes, place value discs, abacus Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sherry in OH Posted May 22, 2012 Share Posted May 22, 2012 Just curious what everyone's preferences are and how many people use lots of different ones. We have Cuisenaire Rods and Unifix Cubes, along with lots of random little counters (mainly in the form of Target $1 section erasers). Now I'm also interested in the AL Abacus. It seems to me like different manipulatives have different advantages over others, but do you think it's too confusing to use different ones? My son has preferences but isn't confused by others. He likes to use the centimeter side of his ruler as a number line. What we use on any given day depends on the focus of the day's lesson. Today we used the 1 and 10 C-rods, 10 cm paper strips, a ruler, and a meter stick. Tomorrow's focus is liquid measure. Most often - number line Frequently - pennies and dimes, AL Abacus, cardstock rings (for creating sets), shape cards Occasionally – other coins, ruler (as a measuring device), tape measure, meter stick, scales (kitchen, spring, balance), assorted measuring cups and containers, thermometer, laminated paper clock, C-rods, Funtastic Frogs, colored craft sticks, geometric solids, dice, paper/cardstock cutouts made for specific lessons Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kathryn Posted May 22, 2012 Share Posted May 22, 2012 I couldn't sleep last night and stayed up really late making a wish list on Rainbow Resource of math manipulatives, so this is oddly timely, and not at all helpful for my wallet. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
meggie Posted May 22, 2012 Share Posted May 22, 2012 MUS blocks geoboards bucket balance scale clock wooden pattern blocks play money Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Violet Crown Posted May 22, 2012 Share Posted May 22, 2012 (edited) The only manipulatives that I've used consistently over the past 5 years of teaching my kids are the base 10 blocks. They've been great for all of the operations... including dealing with long division and decimals. Cuisenaire rods were useful at first, but I don't really use them much any more. Same with fraction bars and clocks and such... Useful for a time, but after a while unnecessary. :iagree: When Great Girl was small, I found a deeply discounted set of wooden geometrical solids, including all the conic sections. I kept it lovingly on the shelf for nearly ten years, until the day she reached that point in geometry where she was confused by the intersection of a plane and a cone. I took out the set. She looked at the shapes for a few seconds, said "Oh, I get it," and never wanted or needed to see them again. ETA: Much more useful than the Cuisenaire rods (for us) has been a lap-size whiteboard from Rainbow Resource with a graph on one side, which we keep handy for graphing even problems that aren't "supposed to" be graphed. Almost as soon as fractions are introduced, we show how to graph them as slopes. Edited May 22, 2012 by Sharon in Austin Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aspasia Posted May 22, 2012 Author Share Posted May 22, 2012 Oh yes, I guess we also have pattern blocks, geoboards, measuring stuff, a balance scale, etc. Now I'm feeling like I want some base ten blocks! Dang it! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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