| Do you have students struggling to grasp basic | | | | them accordingly. The idea here is that you gave |
| math concepts such as sorting, numeracy, or | | | | the student something concrete to determine |
| operations? Using math manipulatives is the key | | | | how they relate to each other rather than simply |
| to helping young children learn abstract math | | | | stating. "How is a zebra the same, or different |
| concepts in a concrete way. It is imperative that | | | | from a bear?" |
| in the early learning years children be given | | | | Along these same lines, you could ask a child to |
| hands-on math manipulatives to begin to explore | | | | show you a "2". They may simply draw a "2". But, |
| math concepts that will be the foundation for all | | | | do they truly know that this is simply a symbol |
| future logical mathematical learning. | | | | and that there is an actual quantity this number |
| Basic foundations for teaching math are sorting | | | | symbol represents. You can teach the numeracy |
| and classifying and numeracy. To teach sorting | | | | concepts by using plastic counters, or household |
| and classifying teachers should use manipulative's | | | | objects like kidney beans, etc. Children must have |
| that have similar and different qualities- for | | | | a representation of what our number symbols |
| example, plastic animal figurines. These may be | | | | mean before they can move forward into learning |
| similar in that they have the same number or | | | | operations such as addition, subtraction, |
| legs, are the same size, have the same colors, | | | | multiplication and division. |
| etc. However, they may also differ in that they | | | | Using math manipulative's in the early years will |
| are different shapes or have other different | | | | help build those basic foundations to later allow |
| attributes. Students can visually see these | | | | students to think more abstractly as they |
| similarities and difference and then sort or classify | | | | progress through mathematical concepts. |