Valerie Diotte Review of Math Manipulatives

February 2014

1. Base Ten Blocks: Base ten blocks are a useful manipulative to help students with learning addition, subtraction, place value, and counting. The students are able to manipulate the blocks in a variety of different ways so that they may represent different numbers and patterns. I have chosen this particular manipulative because it is simple for students to use and they can be used by students for a multitude of different things. A teacher can easily use base ten blocks to demonstrate a math problem in front of the class (e.g. ten plus 8 using one tens place block and 8 ones place blocks). Students are then able to use these manipulatives when working on their own to reinforce their own understanding of the concepts taught in class. While the use of base ten blocks frequently decreases once students get into the higher grades, I believe that teachers should make these manipulatives readily available to all students so that they do not need to feel embarrassed about using them. Base ten blocks, in my opinion, are an extremely effective way to help students visualizeand thus learnfoundational math concepts. 2. Dice: Dice can be a fun and effective tool for teaching students about probability and statistics as well as addition, greater or less than, and a variety of other number concepts and operations. Students could play a game with a partner where they take turns rolling two dice. The students would have a sheet (see appendix 1) where they draw in the faces of the di, and then put in the greater or less than symbol in the middle of the two faces. The teacher can then check the students work to see whether or not they grasp the concept. Another way that students might use dice to learn math would be to roll two dice, add the numbers together, and record their results. I believe that dice would be a fun and helpful way for younger (grades 1-3) students to learn math concepts, as dice are frequently associated with games and children might then relate their math to something fun. 3. Dominoes: Dominoes are an excellent math manipulative for elementary students. Dominoes build on dice pattern and further aid students in the acquisition of addition skills. Students could play a math game using both dominoes and number cards. Students should count add the dots on both sides of the domino and then select the corresponding number card to represent the total. The student can then record their response on a sheet before starting again with another domino. This activity can easily be differentiated for students in the classroom, as the teacher can create baggies with dominoes that cater to specific students needs. For example, an easy set may include dominoes with sums up to and including six, while a harder set may include dominoes with sums up to and including 12. For 100th day in school, students could also make domino trains, where they have to create at least four different trains by connecting dominoes end to end. The number of dots on each trainon all of the dominoes touchingshould equal 100. I feel

Valerie Diotte

February 2014

that dominoes would be a very fun and engaging way for students to practice their math skills and that they absolutely reflect best practice in the math classroom. 4. Snap (Unifix) Cubes: Snap cubes are colourful, interlocking cubes that can be an extremely useful tool for teaching students counting on, addition, subtraction, patterning, measurement, and even multiplication and division. For counting on, students could use the same colour cubes (e.g. all blue) to represent five or ten, and then attach cubes of a different colour (e.g. green) to represent the number they are to count on to. This is helpful for helping students visualize the process of counting on. If students can easily recognize what ten or five snap cubes look like, they dont need to count all of the cubes to figure out the number represented. Snap cubes come in a variety of colours and are useful in that students can alter the number they are representing; providing more options than do base ten blocks. I believe that these would be an excellent tool for students starting in grade 1 and going all the way up to grade 8. 5. Overhead Colour Tiles: Overhead color tiles provide the teacher with the means to help all students in the class visualize math problems at the same time. While the teacher uses the tiles on an overhead projector in front of the class, the students are able to follow along with their own set of tiles at their desks. This provides a hands-on method of learning for the students, which I believe, will result in a better understanding of the material. Tiles can be used for probability, proportional reasoning as well as working with patterns and algebraic problems. For example, students could build a pattern tile train and determine what the colour of the 200th tile would be. Another way the tiles could be used would be to show all possible factors of 24. I chose the overhead colour tiles as one of my five math manipulatives as not many other manipulatives can be used in this manor by the teacher. I feel that the ability for the teacher to demonstrate math problems in front of the class with the tiles would be extremely beneficial to students as it not only provides a visual but also ensures that all students can see what is happening in the class.

Valerie Diotte Appendix 1

February 2014