Math Manipulative

Manipulatives are “concrete objects that can be viewed and physically handled by students in order to demonstrate or model abstract concepts”. Wikipedia defines Manipulatives as an “object which is designed so that a learner can perceive some mathematical concept by manipulating it, hence its name”. In 1951 Piaget’s work suggested “that children age seven to ten years old, work in primarily concrete ways and that the abstract notions of mathematics may only be accessible to them through embodiment in practical resources” (www.hand2mind). Manipulative materials are objects designed to represent explicitly and concretely math ideas that are abstract. They have both visual and tactile appeal and can be manipulated by learners through hands on

That how math Manipulatives work. Objects signs, and symbols to help along the way.

“The benefits of manipulative helping students learn by allowing them to move from concrete experiences to abstract reasoning”. Students learn by doing. Why math Manipulative are perfect tools for teaching and reinforcing? It lets the student explore, develop reasoning and problem solving, with hands on and small group activities. When they can see, and touch the math concept, they will remember it.

Math Manipulatives can be used as games, and students love to play games. Touch and see the math concept come to life using homemade items. Counters- using fruit snacks, cheerios, erasers. Teaching them how to (sort)- using buttons, colored pasta, and skittles. Defining Shapes that can be made out of marshmallows, toothpicks, and cardstock making and laminating

What is 11/2,1/4 or 3/4? After they find the answer they can eat the pizza. Candy math using jelly beans, sweet tarts and gummy bears for math bingo. Recognizing money, making it fun, using real money, learning how to count.

Laminating, shrinking the money, make sure you mark it for teaching money purpose only. They also have math games on the internet called math playground cater to grades K-12. Great for teaching student’s math concepts and vocabulary, encouraging imaginative play and exploration for children to have hands-on experiences. Gizmos is another one that are research based flexible online tools that help teachers take math to another level teaching the whole class to differentiate instructions. It identifies their need and creates a lesson plan to meet it.

Strategy Research 7

One math manipulative that can be useful to learn fractions is the color game. We use color candies such as jelly beans, smarties, or skittles. Set out five candies, two red and 3 blue. What fraction of the candy is red? Solution two candies are red, and three are blue out of five candies solve the problem. The answer 2/5 of the candies are