I am a major proponent for manipulatives in the math classroom. Are there that many anti-manipulatives folks out there? Any? I do believe that creating and using "extras", as they are sadly called too often, are the first things cut when our planning time is short and the week is packed with work and home "to do's". That is where today's post leads us:
How do we have curriculum-appropriate materials ready to go, with great kid appeal? How do these manipulatives serve as multi-taskers, carrying us through many parts of our curriculum, thereby justifying their expense (whether purchased or made by us)?Allow me to help with that a bit.
I have just launched "Learning Through Craft", a Teachers Pay Teachers online store, offering free and low-cost manipulatives and activities for a variety of subject areas. Now, when I say that I just launched this store, I do mean this just happened, as in today. Ergo, there is exactly one (free) material available at this time. It is called "Cupcake Math", and it is a SMART Notebook activity, for use with interactive white board technology. Introduce or review the 4 basic operations, discuss operation properties and use high-interest crafted cupcakes (hand-sewn, then digitally photographed) as your prompt:
One of my main goals with this store -- and with the creation of my SMART activities, worksheets and digital images -- is to integrate quality crafted objects (I love working with textiles and paper) into teacher-friendly materials. I like to teach with a thematic approach, taking a season, holiday or kid-friendly topic and turning it into a learning opportunity. As the store grows, expect to see more of my freebies appear in my posts. If you have any specific themes or materials that you would like to see offered at "Learning Through Craft", please leave a comment. I love to create new things!
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