Happy Wednesday, friends!
It is easy to “throw out” the manipulatives in the upper grades classrooms because they can be viewed as “baby.” But, manipulatives are SO important for concrete understanding!!
First, I am going to share a lesson with you that uses base ten blocks.
Most teachers pull these out in the beginning of the year for place value- calling them ones, tens, hundreds… and unfortunately, kids attach those values to the base ten blocks forever. One of my math coaches mentioned once (and it stuck with me) that we have to move away from calling them ones, tens, and hundreds, because they can represent other things! We need to call them by their names: units, longs, and flats, and then associate the value we want at that time… so in the beginning of the year, “the units, which we are using to represent ones… or the longs, which we are using to represent tens…” I know it’s more “work” to say all this out loud, but you’ll know why after this lesson idea!
I also love to have the kids use the snap cubes during multiplication to model arrays, as well as during my area and perimeter unit- they love “building” and I can easily see if they “get it” without working with each child individually or grading a worksheet. Win, win! :o)
Now it’s your turn! Please grab the Workshop Wednesday button and link your post back to this post! (no store link-ups please) Don’t forget to leave some love for two other link-ups! :o)
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