Friday, July 29, 2011

Commercially available mathematically-rich manipulatives and games

for example:
tangrams
    Explore geometry and measurement ideas using 7 easy pieces: similar triangles, equal areas, angle measures, etc. A wide variety of tasks are available to make this work well with students of all ages.

Wooden Geoboard 8 X 8 Single
    So much more than making a shape! Explore length, area, Pick's Formula, irrational numbers, composing and decomposing regions, congruence, and more.

attribute blocks
One of the central math tasks of early learners is classification. This manipulative allows the student to consider classifying pieces based on shape, color, size, and thickness.

Note: The photo at the top of this blog shows a pattern block design tucked into a hinged mirror. I think it illustrates the beauty of the WOODEN blocks, which I much prefer to the only slightly less expensive plastic ones.




Pentominoes

All the shapes you can make in a plane when 5 congruent squares are connected along whole sides. The 12 pieces can be fitted together to make rectangles (6x10, 5x12, 4x15, 3x20) and many other shapes.




origami



Games

I do not recommend so-called games that are designed to make your child practice math facts--they are boring! The 24-game, featured below, gets the same job done many times over and is fun and exciting. The other games are strategy games which promote logical reasoning and thinking ahead. The ones you can play with young students are Continuo, Gobblet, and Set, since they rely more on visual/spatial thinking than number knowledge.


 Pylos