Manipulatives

Instructional materials and manipulatives are critical in the teaching of geometry and measurement. Many students have trouble connecting the new concepts with their everyday lives and what they already know about their environment. Also, some students are tactile learners and even more are visual learners. Providing students with hands-on activities that allow them to feel and see mathematics and to explore and discover concepts and relationships is an essential first step in the learning process.

When students encounter a new concept, they need to start with concrete representations. This is especially true in the early grades. Once students feel comfortable with the concrete representations they can be moved to instruction involving visual representations. Eventually, when students are developmentally ready, they should feel comfortable using abstract representations. What follows is a list of instructional materials that are useful in teaching measurement and geometry. Examples of how some of these manipulatives can be used in the classroom appear in Instructional Activities and Lesson Plans.

Many of these products are available via Web sites, catalogs, and textbook publishers.

See the Web sites section for some examples.

algebra tiles

attribute blocks

balance scale

base-10 blocks

Battleship game

blocks

calculator

calendar

cardboard “bricks” for preschool

clay

compass

containers for liquid measure (customary/metric)

cubes (centimeter cubes, one-inch cubes)

Cuisenaire® Rods

dominoes

dot paper

flexible straws

fraction circles

fraction squares

geoboards (rectangular and circular)

geo-dot paper

geometric solids

GeoSolids™

graph paper (various sizes)

hinged mirror

JOVO® Click ’N Construct manipulatives

kaleidoscope

Klikko™

K’NEX™

links

liquid measure set

maps

mass/weight set

The Master Ruler®

(customary and metric)

mazes

meter stick

Mira™

mosaics

nets for Platonic solids

number lines

origami paper

paperclips

pattern blocks

patty paper

pentominoes

Platonic solid models

Polydrons™

protractors

puzzles

quilts

rulers (English/metric)

spaghetti

square tiles (one-inch)

string

tangrams

tape measure (customary/metric)

thermometer (Fahrenheit/centigrade)

tissue paper

toothpicks and gum drops

triangle grid paper

trundle wheel

tubes (cardboard paper towel tubes, etc.)

Unifix® cubes

yardstick

yarn

Zome™ Geometry

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