$1st grade math games with playing cards$

One more plug for unifix cubes– use them for quick assessment! Informal assessments like “In the Bag” are no-prep and hands-on ways for use to quickly check a student’s math thinking! 2-Sided CountersĢ-side counter s are another one of the best first grade math manipulatives for building number sense. The ability to compose and decompose numbers is crucial to any first grader’s mathematical foundation of understanding. This process beautifully sets the stage for our work with place value.

With time, they will organically begin composing higher and higher numbers, and as they get more advanced they can literally construct hundreds out of tens. One example you’ll see every day in my classroom: students building their own sticks of ten to practice number composition and decomposition. When using unifix cubes, we can support TWO concepts with one first grade math manipulative. Unifix cubes are an excellent alternative to base ten blocks. In first grade, we are still working with low numbers (mostly under 20). Unifix Cubesįor me, there is one first grade math manipulative that no teacher should be without: unifix cubes! Unifix cubes have transformed my young students’ math learning and are arguably the most important and versatile math manipulative for first grade. If you happen to order one of the manipulatives from the link provided, I earn a small percentage of that sale, which goes towards the maintenance of my blog. You can click on any of the headings below for an Amazon affiliate link, where you can find a direct link to the specific manipulative I use in my classroom. So that’s why I just can’t wait to share my five favorite math manipulatives for first grade to make your math centers a success! It might even be my favorite kind of online shopping. Over the years, math manipulatives have become my jam.įriends, I can’t even tell you how many hours (days?) I’ve spent scouring the internet looking for the just-right first grade math manipulatives for my classroom. I needed to find ways to help them go from physical, concrete understanding to abstract thinking about numbers. That’s how my collection of math manipulatives for first grade began. Time after time, if I couldn’t provide my first graders with significant visual and tactile representations, we would often just hit a wall. But I didn’t always have the tools to do it successfully. What if I told you that you could transform your math block with these five must-have first grade math manipulatives? If you know me, you know I LOVE teaching math.