Friday, July 3, 2020

Individual student toolkits for CRA instruction


If students are in your classroom in August, it will be worth your time to have some sort of math tool kits prepared for your students because it is not recommended that students share resources, and you don't want to be cleaning them every night. What you are able to put in the kits will depend on your resources.  

We know that CRA instruction is vital for conceptual understanding of mathematical concepts.  Just because we will have some limits in place (for everyone's safety), doesn't mean we should abandon best practices.  We just need to adjust and do what we can for our students.

As I have said before, the use of virtual manipulatives will probably increase in your instruction even if you are seeing students in person.  This is especially true for those manipulatives where students usually need a lot of them to do their work--like pattern blocks and base ten blocks. I recommend that you use the virtual versions some in the classroom so that students are comfortable with the websites if they should need to use them from home without your direct support.

You might also consider paper versions of some of these tools to have in students's toolkits.  Not only can you get them easily and cheaply for the classroom, but you can also send them home if you need to without the worry of losing valuable manipulatives.

You may not start the year with all of the items in the toolkits.  You might add some as students are introduced to new concepts. Here are some things you might consider putting into individual toolkits for your students:

K:
hundred grid from nrich.maths.org
number path  1-20 by Berkeley Everett
ten counters (unifix cubes?)
rekenrek
real or paper pattern blocks by Mathwire
+/- Math Flips cards (+/- 1) by Berkeley Everett
Quantity Cards from Erickson Early Math Collaborative
pair of dice

1:
hundred grid from nrich.maths.org
number path  1-20 by Berkeley Everett
twenty counters (unifix cubes ?)
rekenrek
beaded number line
small clock face paper version
real or paper pattern blocks by Mathwire
pair of dice

2:
hundred grid from nrich.maths.org
number line 1-20 by Math Salamanders
twenty counters (cm cubes?)
rekenrek
beaded number line
small clock face   paper version
play coins, dollar bills
ruler
real or paper pattern blocks by Mathwire
real or paper base ten blocks from Tim Van de Vall
+/- Math Flips cards by Berkeley Everett (Doubles/Near Doubles) (make 10 with 2 addends)                        (make 10 with 3 addends) (2 digit + 1 digit) (2 digit + 2 digit) (subtraction within 20) (subtraction within 100)                                                                       
pair of dice

3:
twenty or more counters (cm cubes?)
beaded number line
small clock face   paper version
play coins, dollar bills
ruler
10 x 10 array (laminate)
real or paper pattern blocks by Mathwire
real or paper base ten blocks from Tim Van de Vall
paper Fraction Strip  from Math Salamander (blank version)
paper Fraction Circle Pieces Page 1   Page 2  Page 3
+/- Math Flips cards by Berkeley Everett (if needed from previous grades)
 x Math Flips cards by Berkeley Everett (2s,5s, and 10s) (4s, 6s,& 8s) (3s & 6s) (9s & 4s)
pair of dice

4:
thirty-six counters (cm cubes?)
beaded number line
ruler
10 x 10 array (laminate)
real or paper pattern blocks by Mathwire
real or paper base ten blocks from Tim Van de Vall
paper Fraction Strip  from Math Salamander
paper Fraction Circle Pieces Page 1   Page 2  Page 3
+/- Math Flips cards by Berkeley Everett (if needed from previous grades)
 x Math Flips cards by Berkeley Everett
pair of dice

5:
thirty-six counters (cm cubes?)
beaded number line
ruler
real or paper pattern blocks by Mathwire
real or paper base ten blocks from Tim Van de Vall
paper Fraction strip from Math Salamander
paper Fraction Circle Pieces Page 1   Page 2  Page 3
Math Flips cards by Berkeley Everett (if needed from previous grades)
pair of dice

If you laminate many of the paper tools, students could use a dry erase marker to create representations.

What am I forgetting?




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