Teaching Strategies.
Choose purposeful materials, ask useful questions, and connect models with mathematical explanations.
A manipulative provides something to move, inspect, and discuss. Its value in a lesson depends on the question being explored and on the meaning assigned to the pieces. Begin by deciding what you want learners to explain.
Give time to become familiar with a material, then pose one clear problem. Ask what a piece stands for, what a move changes, and how the model connects with a drawing or equation. Keep a learner’s explanation visible long enough to compare it with another approach.
The articles below offer practical starting points for choosing materials, supporting discussion, and adapting a task for home. They are suggestions to try and adjust, rather than a prescribed lesson format or a promise of a particular learning outcome.
Make it concrete.
Ideas to explore.
guide
A small space for a good math conversation
Turn one mathematical question and a few everyday objects into a useful conversation at home.
guide
Choosing your first manipulatives
Build a small, versatile collection around the ideas you want learners to explore.
comparison
Physical or digital? Choose the action you need
Compare what learners can do with each format, and choose the material that fits the mathematical task.
article
Questions that make room for thinking
Simple prompts that invite learners to explain, compare, and rethink what they have made.