math manipulatives

Fantastic Flexible Foldables

October 25, 2009Kelly Tenkely2 Comments4337 views

What it is: I love online activities that students can take part in, but because most of us don’t have the luxury of a 1 to 1 school setting, good old paper manipulatives are winners in the classroom. Fantastic Flexible Foldables is a collection of mini math books and games that you can print out and create with your students. You and your students can create a fraction mini-book, a factors and multiples mini-book, a fortune teller fractor game, a geometry tetraflexagon, an integer infinity square, Flippers (fraction, decimal, music), and lines trihexaflexagon. These foldables help your students to interact with and practice math concepts that can be difficult to grasp apart from manipulatives where they can see the problems worked out. The Flexible Foldables by Carol DeFreese are well thought out and have step by step picture instructions for folding and using these with your students. Carol has also generously provided blank foldable templates that you can download and use to create your own foldables.

How to integrate Fantastic Flexible Foldables into the classroom: These foldable templates really are fantastic. They are a wonderful addition to the math classroom. Even if you don’t focus on any of the skills that Carol has created foldables for, download her blank templates and create foldables that will help your students learn difficult math concepts. These foldables will help your students visulaize and interact with math in new ways. This is an incredible resource and even more incredible that it is free! Sometimes the best part of technology is the way it allows for the sharing of ideas and teaching methods… this site is proof of that!

Tips: Files on the Fantastic Foldables site are in pdf or .doc formats.

Leave a comment and tell us how you are using Fantastic Flexible Foldables in your classroom.

October 13, 2008Kelly TenkelyLeave a Comment2447 views

What it is: I’m actually doing a two for one post today because both sites have a great math manipulative tool. The first is an online analog clock. Students can explore the clock by moving the hour and minute hands in five minute intervals, minute intervals, 15 minute intervals, and hour intervals. There is no associated game with the clock, it is simply a tool to help your students get familiar with the analog clock. The second site is all about rulers and measurement, The Ruler Game. The Ruler Game teaches students how to read a ruler. Students can also practice their ruler reading skills with this game. Students can practice reading the ruler in sixteenths of an inch, eighths, quarters, halves, and whole inches.

How to integrate Analog Clock and The Ruler Game into the classroom: The Analog clock site is a great one for students to visit when they are learning about the analog clock. In the computer lab or projector classroom, have the students interact with the clock and make observations about what happens as they click the different increments. Talk about the way the clock works as a class. Call out a time and have the students match the time called with the clock on their computer. If you have access to a projector, play as a whole class and have students come up one at a time to demonstrate different times as a class. Bookmark the Analog Clock on your classroom computers as a math help center. The Ruler Game is a great way to help students understand how to read a ruler. Use it individually in a computer lab setting or use it as a math center in the one or two computer classroom. In either setting, this game will have your students reading measurement in no time. They will love trying to beat the clock!

Tips: The ruler game is not compatible with some web browsers, test it on a student computer before using in class… no one likes introducing a cool new tool to students only to find out that it doesn’t work at school!

Leave a comment and tell us how you are using Analog Clock and The Ruler Game in your classroom.