Workshop Wednesday (math manipulatives)

I am linking up today with Ideas by Jivey.  She is an amazing blogger and always takes the time to make her bloggy buddies feel loved.  She is going through a tough personal situation right now.  Her friend could use everyone's thoughts and prayers at this time.  Prayer can be so powerful and I know Jivey would appreciate all the prayers you can send her friend's way! 

This week the topic is math manipulatives for Jivey's awesome linky party, Workshop Wednesday.

  

Some of you may already know this, but my favorite subject is math!  I love it.  

The most frequently used math manipulatives are stored in my room whereas the others are in my storage closet right outside my classroom.  

You don't want to see a picture of the storage closet.  

It is scary.  

I have BIG plans this summer to reorganize!

 Maybe I will show some pictures then if I am feeling brave:)

Here are pictures of my most used math manipulatives...

This is the inside of the tangrams bin.  Each set of tangrams are housed in a separate baggy to keep the sets organized.  We use tangram pieces for teaching symmetry, area (there is a relationship between the size of the pieces), geometry, congruent vs. similar, and other concepts that I can't recall at the moment.

The green basket holds chips used for games at centers or whole class games.

I keep my dice in a tub on top of my center materials cart.  The yellow dice are made of foam and I LOVE them.  You cannot hear them being rolled!

 Finally, I use the SMART board resources for so many manipulatives now.  The students love to use the SMART board during math lessons.  The only downfall is there is only one SMART board and each student doesn't get their own.  

For example, there are programs where students can manipulate items on the SMART board to demonstrate the concept as you would with manipulatives at your desk.

So, there are some ways to I store and use manipulatives in math!  I need to catch up on some major blog reading tonight!!  Tomorrow morning we have to be at the hospital bright and early at 7:00 a.m. for my daughter's tonsillectomy (adenoids out too)!  Please keep her in your prayers.  I know it is a routine procedure but Mommy is a little nervous:)