Throughout the year I will encourage the students to use manipulatives to help them solve math story problems. I have a wide variety of them to choose from including cubes, base-ten blocks, counters, shapes, and buttons. The students find it very enjoyable to use these tools so we will often talk about the difference between using them as toys and tools. In the pictures featured above, the students had some time to experiment with the manipulatives and play with them as toys....that way they'll have it out of their system when it comes time to solve challenging math problems.
