Singapore Manipulatives Question

[MrsBanjoClown]

I am getting ready to purchase manipulatives for Singapore Standards 1 and 2. Would a kitchen scale that goes up to 1 lb/500 grams work, or do I need something larger? So far, I have in my cart a base 10 place value set, set of 100 multilink cubes, 250 transparent counters (will use some for place value counters), a wooden solid shape set, a bucket balance scale and a brass mass set. How does that sound? Anything I don't need or anything I'm missing? Thanks for your help!

[chepyl]

I had a small scale, 1lb I think. A few measuring tapes, I skipped the yard stick and used string. I had rulers as well. For everything else, we used whatever interested us. We multiplied with colored pencils. My son hated all the cubes and things we had. Money and colored pencils worked. I was glad we inherited the manipulatives and dis not pay for them ;)

[EmmaNadine]

I would recommend a clock with geared hands for practice telling time. Other than that, have you checked this list for what manipulatives each book uses?

 

We have this clock and my son loves it. He knows his schedule, so when we tell him it is bath time, he will go set the hands on the clock to the right time.

[buram]

:bigear: getting ready to start Singapore also and wondering the same thing. I have Cuisenaire rods and a few other things already. I am hoping I can get by with those and not have to buy multi-link cubes.

[MrsBanjoClown]

I would recommend a clock with geared hands for practice telling time. Other than that, have you checked this list for what manipulatives each book uses?

 

We have this clock and my son loves it. He knows his schedule, so when we tell him it is bath time, he will go set the hands on the clock to the right time.

 

I used the manipulative list from the HIGs. I have a small Judy clock, but it is not geared.

[Spy Car]

:bigear: getting ready to start Singapore also and wondering the same thing. I have Cuisenaire rods and a few other things already. I am hoping I can get by with those and not have to buy multi-link cubes.

 

Save your money. Anything you can do with the multi-link cubes you can do better with the Cuisenaire Rods IMO, other than physically connecting them (which is unnecessary).

 

The HIG exercises that involve multi-link rods can be "translated" easily to C Rods.

 

I think it is a good idea to have a set of base-10 flats (hundred values) to round out the C Rod set and help with modeling 3 digit numbers and developing early number sense. Some of this is not directly in Singapore unfortunately, as it is good to develop a concrete understanding of place value early IMO.

 

Otherwise, spending a lot of money on manipulatives is a questionable expense, and not really necessary.

 

Bill

[buram]

Oh good. My daughter loves the rods so I was hoping to use those. Also, I will be combining Singapore with Miquon so I am thinking the rods will tie the two programs together nicely. Plus, I do have a set of multi-link cubes from when I used to teach preschool and the ones I have are very hard to snap together or take apart. I also recently found a set of the flats for $1 at a used homeschool sale. The girls are loving those. Thanks.

 

OP, sorry for hijacking your thread.

Edited June 11, 2012 by buram
Forgot some info.

[boscopup]

I plan to use C-rods and maybe Base-10 blocks, since I have them. We also have the geared clock. I don't plan to get a balance or scale or anything like that. We have body weight scales in the house, plus they use scales in the produce section at the grocery store all the time. So pictures will be enough for my son for those topics. They were for DS1 when he did them in Math Mammoth.

[LearnLaughLove]

I bought the Saxon K-3 manipulatives set and it seemed to have almost everything we needed.