Dots Lots of Fun

I am always looking for ordinary items that can be used in the classroom as manipulatives. I'm a firm believer in the Conceptual Development Model which advocates teaching the concrete (using manipulatives) prior to moving to the pictorial before even thinking about the abstract.  When I was at the Dollar Store (a great, inexpensive place to purchase school stuff) I saw sets of dominoes for $1.00 each.  Since they were inexpensive and readily available, I decided to create several math activities and games to introduce, reinforce, or reteach math concepts.


Think about it; if you lay a domino horizontally, you have a two digit number.  Put two dominoes side-by-side, and a four digit number is created.  Now you can work with place value, estimation, or rounding.  How about lining up dominoes in a column, and working on addition (with or without regrouping) or subtraction (with or without renaming)? 

Another perfect domino activity is practicing addition or multiplication facts.  How about adding the two sides of the domino or multiplying the two sides together?

If a domino is placed vertically, you immediately have a fraction.  Placed one way it is a proper fraction, but rotated around, it is an improper fraction which can then be reduced.  A fraction can also be changed into a division problem, a ratio, a decimal, or a percent.

So think outside that box of dominoes and use them as an inexpensive math manipulative because there is Dots Fun for Everyone!

 

I am always looking for ordinary items that can be used in the classroom as manipulatives. I'm a firm believer in the Conceptual Development Model which advocates teaching the concrete (using manipulatives) prior to moving to the pictorial before even thinking about the abstract.  When I was at the Dollar Store (a great, inexpensive place to purchase school stuff) I saw sets of dominoes for $1.00 each.  Since they were inexpensive and readily available, I decided to create several math activities and games to introduce, reinforce, or reteach math concepts.


Think about it; if you lay a domino horizontally, you have a two digit number.  Put two dominoes side-by-side, and a four digit number is created.  Now you can work with place value, estimation, or rounding.  How about lining up dominoes in a column, and working on addition (with or without regrouping) or subtraction (with or without renaming)? 

Another perfect domino activity is practicing addition or multiplication facts.  How about adding the two sides of the domino or multiplying the two sides together?

If a domino is placed vertically, you immediately have a fraction.  Placed one way it is a proper fraction, but rotated around, it is an improper fraction which can then be reduced.  A fraction can also be changed into a division problem, a ratio, a decimal, or a percent.

So think outside that box of dominoes and use them as an inexpensive math manipulative because there is Dots Fun for Everyone!

 

I am always looking for ordinary items that can be used in the classroom as manipulatives. I'm a firm believer in the Conceptual Development Model which advocates teaching the concrete (using manipulatives) prior to moving to the pictorial before even thinking about the abstract.  When I was at the Dollar Store (a great, inexpensive place to purchase school stuff) I saw sets of dominoes for $1.00 each.  Since they were inexpensive and readily available, I decided to create several math activities and games to introduce, reinforce, or reteach math concepts.


Think about it; if you lay a domino horizontally, you have a two digit number.  Put two dominoes side-by-side, and a four digit number is created.  Now you can work with place value, estimation, or rounding.  How about lining up dominoes in a column, and working on addition (with or without regrouping) or subtraction (with or without renaming)? 

Another perfect domino activity is practicing addition or multiplication facts.  How about adding the two sides of the domino or multiplying the two sides together?

If a domino is placed vertically, you immediately have a fraction.  Placed one way it is a proper fraction, but rotated around, it is an improper fraction which can then be reduced.  A fraction can also be changed into a division problem, a ratio, a decimal, or a percent.

So think outside that box of dominoes and use them as an inexpensive math manipulative because there is Dots Fun for Everyone!