Math Manipulatives
for
Struggling Learners
Math manipulatives can help children problem solve and see patterns. Many children who struggle with math have trouble seeing patterns. They also have trouble solving problems, especially story problems. Manipuatives can help.
Math Manipulatives from the Store
Linking cubes or Unifix cubes are colored cubes that can be used to add, subtract, multiply and divide. The cubes come in 10 different colors. The cubes also link together so they can be used for nonstandard measurement and making bar graphs. Linking cubes and Unifix cubes are very similar. I would buy one or the other. You do not need both.
Here are some activities for linking cubes. Build an AB pattern using two colors. When your child can make AB patterns himself move on to more complex patterns. Teach AAB patterns such as red, red, blue. Have your child make up patterns.
Teach operations using cubes. Have your child link three blue cubes and two brown cubes together. Ask your child, "How many cubes do you have all together?" Make up other addition problems. Have your child make up problems.
An example of a subtraction problem is link six cubes together then take away three.
To teach multiplication, have your child make two chains of five cubes each.
For division give your child a chain of nine cubes. Ask your child, "How he can make three equal chains?" Make sure that you give lots of practice with each operation.
Another activity is to use cubes to teach place value. Assign a color such as red for ones, blue for tens and brown for hundreds. Show your child 9 red cubes, 2 blue cubes and 5 brown cubes. Ask what number you should write. The answer should be 529.
Cuisenaire Rods also come in 10 different colors. Each color represents a different number and is a different length. White is one and is the smallest. Red is next. It takes two whites to make a red. To make a green rod use either three whites or one red and one white. The next seven rods are purple, yellow, teal, black, brown, blue, and finally orange. I have also seen ten orange rods hooked together to represent 100. The Idea Book for Cuisenaire Rods by Cecilia Dinio-Durkin is full of activities and worksheets using Cuisenaire rods.
Pattern blocks are 10 shapes each with a different color. There is a green triangle, white rhombus, red trapezoid, yellow hexagon, orange square, and a blue parallelogram. Use the shapes to create designs. Make walls with the blocks such as red trapezoid, green triangle. Teach symmetry.
Use the blocks to show fractions. Two triangles will fit on a trapezoid. There are activity cards that help the child make designs such as a flower or a boat.
Tangrams are seven shapes that can be put together to make a square. Have your child identify the shapes. Math terms such as congruent, line, angle, side and parallel can be introduced. Tangramables by Judi Martschinke is a fun book. The book has shapes to cover with tanagrams.
Dominoes are rectangular blocks with dots. Use dominoes to teach math operations. Add the two sets of dots. Have your child find other dominoes with the same sum. Subtract the smaller number of dots from the larger number of dots. Another activity would be to multiply the dots.
Geoboards are peg boards. You use rubber bands to make shapes. The boards are good for teaching symmetry and congruent shapes.
Geometric shapes are 3-D shapes. There is a cube, triangle prism, rectangular prism, hexagon prism, cylinder, sphere, triangle pyramid, square pyramid, and cone.
Attribute blocks come in five shapes, three colors two thickens and two sizes. I do not have much experience using attribute blocks. We had a set in the classroom that I worked in, but no one used them. The blocks would be good for sorting and learning shapes. You could probably make them out of craft foam.
My two favorite math manipulatives from the store are the pattern blocks and the linking cubes. My children used them the most.
Math Manipulatives around the House
Make sure that you have some measuring tools around the house. Use rulers to measure. Also have on hand yard sticks and tape measures.
Many things can be used for math manipulatives. Bean can be used to sort, count, and for doing operations. If you have more than one size of beans you can teach size relationships.
A similar item would be buttons. My children love to look through my button collection. They like to sort according to size, color or how many holes the button has.
When we do money problems we use real money. My children find it easier to count real coins instead of plastic.
There are a lot of items that you can collect and use as math manipulatives. Collect plastic bread ties, bottle caps, rocks or beads.
You can find geometric shapes in your kitchen. Use soup cans to show cylinders. Boxes can show cubes. Use balls for spheres.
Math Manupulatives that You Make
I had one child that needed a lot of hands on work before he understood math. I picked up the book 40 Easy-to-Make Math Manipulatives by Carole J. Reesink. A lot of the manipulatives can be made with your child. We made a dinosaur. The spikes were two different colored clothes pins that could be used for addition and subtraction.
Number lines are easy to make. Take a strip of paper and number 1-10. Space the numbers evenly. The number line can be used for adding and subtracting.
Math manipulatives are a fun and helpful way to make since out of math.
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