· 2 min read · Ages 4–9 · Pre-K through Grade 3
Print a student math tool kit: mats, base-ten blocks, coins, a clock
The bag of plastic base-ten blocks is in the classroom. The homework is at home. A printed kit in a zip bag solves that for about four cents.
The homework said "use your base-ten blocks to show 47." The blocks were in a tub in Room 12. What we had at home was a printer and scissors, and that turned out to be enough. Twenty minutes later there was a zip bag on the table with four paper rods and seven paper units in it.
What the sheet looks like
The math tool kit generator prints two kinds of page. Work mats are blank backgrounds to put things on: part-part-whole (circles or a bar model), a place value mat with write-the-number boxes (H-T-O, T-O or Th-H-T-O), a double ten frame or twenty frame, number line strips (0–20, 0–100 or open, two or three per page), a hundred or 120 chart, and a 20-bead rekenrek. Manipulatives are things to cut out: base-ten flats, rods and units (or mixed), a clock face with hour and minute hands, coins at 1¢, 5¢, 10¢ and 25¢, number cards 0–20, dot cards 1–10 and a dice net with pips, 1–6, 0–5 or blank faces.
Print one sheet at a time, or switch to whole kit, tick the sheets you want and print them all together. Labels and numbers on the mats can be turned off for a blank version.
Why it works
- A part-part-whole mat with real counters on it turns 7 = 3 + 4 into something a five-year-old can push around. The mat is what makes a pile of beans into math.
- Place value needs to be physical before it is written. Four rods and seven units on an H-T-O mat is 47 in a way that the digits are not yet.
- A kit the child cut out themselves is a kit they know how to use. Cutting the ten rod into ten units when they run short is a lesson on its own.
Who it suits
Pre-K and kindergarten need the part-part-whole mat, the ten frames, the dot cards and the number cards. First and second graders add the T-O place value mat, base-ten blocks, the 120 chart and the coins. The Th-H-T-O mat, the open number line and the clock are grade 2 and 3 tools. It is a kit, not a worksheet; there is nothing to fill in. For the written side of place value, the base ten blocks worksheet pairs with the cut-outs.
Card stock for the manipulatives, plain paper for the mats. Paper units go missing by the second week.