Helpful+Activities!

​ **__Manipulatives__** help make abstract ides concrete, take math out of the textbook and into a student's hands, gives students a concrete way to confirm their reasoning, and make math fun. For all of these reasons, manipulatives should be a part of your classroom or home. Here is a list of great manipulatives and a few activities to help the student with the use of manipulatives:

1. Unifix cubes : Used for making sets, adding on, sorting, making patterns, number sense, base ten, addition, subtraction and more. 2. Colored bears: Used for counting, sorting, making sets, making patterns, addition, subtraction and more. 3. Straws:Used for place value, base ten, counting and more 4. Food:Used for sorting, counting, adding, multiplying, dividing and more. 5. Dice: Used for adding, subtracting, multiplying and more(see activity below). 6. Cards: Can be used for adding, subtracting, multiplying and more(see activity below). 7. Index cards: Can be used for flashcards, numbers, math fact games and more(see activity below).

Activity #1: In this activity, the student can work on addition, subtraction and multiplication Activity #2 For this activity, have the student gather 2 sets of cards. The cards are dealt out to 2 or more players. Each player puts 2 of their cards face up. They add the 2 cards together. The player with the highest number wins all of the cards in front of them. When 2 players have the same sum, they will play war and lay down 2 more cards. They add all 4 cards they put down. The player with the highest number wins all of the cards on the table. The player with the most cards at the end wins!!! Activity #3 Divide into 2 teams or 2 people and give each a fly swatter. Write the numbers 1-20 on the board or on index cards if doing at home. Hold up 2 index cards with numbers on them. Tell the students to add them up and then run and swat the number the cards add too. The first team to swat the correct number is the winner. This can also be done with subtraction, multiplication and division.
 * Add using Dice**: First, get at least 2 dice. Next one person rolls the set of dice and adds the dice together saying the number outloud. This goes on until the roller gets a wrong answer. Then it is the next players roll. If this is too easy, add a 3rd and 4th dice. You could keep score by the number of correct answers before having to turn the dice over to the other player.
 * Subtract using dice:** Start by one player throwing two dice. Then throw a third. Subtract the third from the total of the first two. So, if a 12 is thrown first and a 5 is thrown second, the answer would be 7.
 * Multiply using dice:** Have each player throw the dice and multiply the two numbers together. You could even turn on a one minute time and see how many correct rolls the student gets in a minute.