20+ Math Manipulatives for Beginning Learners

Whether the Easter Bunny visits your home or not, Easter can be a fun season as we celebrate the Resurrection of our Lord and the freedom from sin that this victory makes available to us.

Our family loves to have Easter baskets and I think it is fun for each basket to have a theme. If you wanted to prepare a basket for your young learner to help develop their math skills, here are my recommendations.

Play “Store”

• Garage sale labels to place on toys
• Play money coins
• Play money bills

Skip Counting Supplies

• Ping pong balls and paper bags (Toss the ball in the bags and add up the points by 2’s, 5’s, 10’s)
• Paper clips to use for place value or counting by various increments
• Erasers as a basic manipulative for counting
• Ice trays to drop marbles or bingo chips or for sorting colors
• Chenille stems to lace with beads and tag for skip counting

Pick a Pattern

• Jelly Beans for making patterns but also for graphing or probability
• Pom poms to sort in an ice tray or bowls using tongs
• Star stickers for fine motor skills and pattern making on paper
• Pony beads to make patterns in an ice tray or on chenille stems as well as for skip counting
• Sticky notes for marking math problems and pattern play

Learning Numbers

• Magnetic numbers to use on the refrigerator or a cookie sheet to make math problems
• Dice for playing printable games, basic adding, or learning to count
• Dominoes for number matching, learning to count, and recognizing value

Instruments for Measuring

• Measuring cups to use with sand or water can teach basic measurements and fractions
• Rulers for measuring and adding

Basic helps for learning

• Equation building cards for making math problems
• Math skills workbooks for use with dry erase markers
• Flash cards for memorizing math facts

This only scratches the surface of what you can do with these items and a quick trip to your local dollar store can provide even more resources for making math more fun.

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