Manipulatives Blog

1. How do you hold all children accountable when you are using manipulatives for an activity?

As a teacher we need to act as facilitators and moderators. While students are using manipulatives we should be walking around the room and making sure that all of the students are staying on task and doing what they are supposed to be doing. Also you can discuss rules with students before handing out the manipulatives. Students may also write a journal entry and fill out a student page with the information that they had learned that day. Students can also work in small groups, this would be better than large groups when using manipulatives. This is because when students are in small groups they are sort of forced to work together and both forced to particpate and not rely on other members as if they were in a bigger group.

2. Why do people say not "hands on" but "hands on minds on"?

When someone refers to something has hands on it means that the student is actually physically manipulating an object or objects. That phrase does not really have to do with the cognitive aspect of the manipulatives process as well. That is why people now add "minds on" as well. When students are using manipulatives they are not just playing with objects, they are actually using their cognitive abilities and using the manipulatives to gain knowledge and new ideas.

3. How do the process standards fit with the manipulative activities?

All five process standards fit very well with the manipulative activities. In class today when we used the manipulatives and came up with acitivities for each of the content standards, it was a little hard. Howevever we soon grasped it very fast and it became easier to make those activities. Through those activities students also use the process standards. Students are constantly problem solving and also using reasoning and proof when they are using the manipulatives in a way to learn new ideas. Communications is also very key. Students can work in groups and communicate about the math that they are doing while they are using the manipulatives. For visual learners this can make the communication a lot easier and more fun as well. Representations is also very important because students are using the manipulatives to represent objects and numbers and using them come up with ideas.