How to Create Your Own Free Math
Manipulative Kit
Homeschooling sometimes feels very complicated. Not only do we have to choose
curriculum for every subject, but we also have to make further decisions about which
curriculum components we’ll buy. Practice book? Audio companion? Enrichment
coloring pages? In math, we also have to figure out which math manipulatives to buy.
Here’s the good news: teaching math does not need to be complicated. People
have learned math for hundreds of years without a geoboard, plastic counting bears, or
base-ten blocks. Yes, you need to choose a curriculum. But when it comes to
manipulatives, one shoebox of simple everyday items will serve you well through the
elementary years.
It’s fine to add more if you want. But if the budget is tight, or space is limited, this
inexpensive math manipulative kit will accomplish just what you need. Read the full
description below, or skip to page 6 for the checklist and printables.
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Kate’s Homeschool Math Help’s Minimalist Manipulative Kit
What You Need to Create Your Own Math
Manipulative Kit
Counters
About 30 small items to use as counters, such as colored tiles, Legos, snap cubes,
dried beans, or wooden blocks. It’s best if these items have identical shapes and come
in a couple different colors.
You’ll need counters to teach your younger children to count, identify and compare
numbers, and master basic addition and subtraction.
Coins and Play Money
About 25 pennies, 20 dimes, 20 nickels, and 10 quarters. It’s fine to use plastic coins
if you have them, but kids love to use real ones–and then you don’t have to buy more
stuff!
Coins are obviously essential for teaching children to count money. But you can also:
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Use pennies as counters
Use nickels, dimes, or quarters to practice counting by 5s, 10s, or 25s.
Use pennies and dimes to teach place value.
Use pennies and dimes to teach adding and subtracting 2-digit numbers, with or
without regrouping.
Use pennies and dimes to stand for tenths and hundredths to teach decimals.
Play money (especially 1s, 10s, and 100s) from board games like Monopoly is also
great for teaching place value.
Straws and Rubber Bands
About 20 rubber bands, and at box of at least 100 straws. For first and second
graders, you’ll probably want 200 straws so that you have at least one bundle of 100.
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Kate’s Homeschool Math Help’s Minimalist Manipulative Kit
Straws are the perfect manipulative for learning place-value. They’re easy-to-handle,
light, and cheap. Use the rubber bands to bundle them into groups of 10, and then
bundle ten 10s into a group of 100. Once you’ve made some bundles of 10, use them
to teach two-digit addition and subtraction, with and without regrouping.
Straws are also a great tool for teaching geometry. Kids learn a lot from actually
constructing geometric shapes rather than just looking at them in a book. For example,
when studying quadrilaterals, challenge your child to cut straws into different sizes
and construct rectangles, squares, and parallelograms.
Egg Carton
Egg carton, with two cups cut off to make a 2×5 grid.
Addition and Subtraction: Use the 2×5 egg carton as a variation on the ten-frame
for younger children who are learning the sums and differences up to 10.
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Model addition with different-colored counters. “What’s 6 + 3?”
Model subtraction by filling the cups with the minuend (the starting number).
“There are 7 counters. How many will there be if I take away 2?”
You can also add a second egg carton to model the numbers in the teens, or to practice
sums and differences greater than 10.
Multiplication and Division: Use the 2×5 egg carton to organize groups of counters
as you introduce your kids to the concept of equal groups in multiplication and
division.
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Model multiplication by putting equal quantities of counters in each egg cup. “If
I have 6 groups of 3, how many counters do I have?”
Model division in two ways. “I have 24 counters. If I divide them up among six
cups, how many will be in each cup?” Or, “I have 24 counters. If I put six in
each cup, how many cups will I fill?”
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Kate’s Homeschool Math Help’s Minimalist Manipulative Kit
Deck of cards and 2 dice
Playing cards and 2 dice. (Raid your game cupboard.)
It’s always handy to have a deck of cards and some dice handy when math is feeling
like drudgery and everyone (including mom!) needs a change of pace. Check out
my free math games for ideas. And for the motherlode of math games you can play
with a deck of cards, check out Denise Gaskin’s The Game Worth 1000 Worksheets.
Clock
Clock with hands that move. Use one you have around the house, or buy an
inexpensive geared clock.
If you’re teaching a younger child to read time, you need some sort of clock with
hands that you can move.
Index cards
Pack of 100 index cards.
I love index cards! They’re very cheap and very useful. Once you have some handy,
you’ll find many ways to use them. Here are some of the ways I like to use index
cards:
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Flash cards: Ever discover that your child needs review with a particular
topic…but then you forget to actually review it? I sure do! If you keep a deck of
“review flash cards” and go through them each day, you won’t forget to review
that topic your child keeps forgetting. Math facts and vocabulary are especially
well-suited to this.
Number cards: Write each number from 0 to 10 on index cards. Use them with
younger children to practice identifying numbers, comparing numbers,putting
numbers in sequence, or finding pairs that can be added together to make a
target number.
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Kate’s Homeschool Math Help’s Minimalist Manipulative Kit
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Geometry: Cut an index card apart to construct shapes. “If you cut this card into
two triangles, what can you make from them?” Or, explore symmetry by folding
the card before cutting.
Ruler and measuring tools
Ruler
Rulers provide a simple model of the number line (especially if you have a meter stick
that goes up to 100cm). A ruler is all you need in your everyday math supplies, but
it’s also very helpful to have access to a tape measure, yardstick, kitchen scale, and
measuring cups so that it’s easy to practice real-life measuring with your kids.
Paper manipulatives and charts: Ten-frame, 100s chart, grid
paper, and fraction strips
Many of the best math tools are simple pieces of paper.
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Ten-frame: Essential for teaching the addition and subtraction facts.
100s chart: Great for teaching skip-counting and place-value.
Centimeter grid paper: Draw arrays to model single- and multi-digit
multiplication. Or, use 10×10 grids to represent decimals and percentages (and
to cement the connection between them).
Fraction strips: My favorite manipulative for teaching fractions. They’re much
easier to draw and visualize than circles.
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Kate’s Homeschool Math Help’s Minimalist Manipulative Kit
Ready to put together your own math
manipulative toolbox?
Here’s what you’ll need:
□ 30 small items to use as counters, such as Legos, snap cubes,
dried beans, or wooden blocks. (It’s best if your counters have
identical shapes and come in at least two different colors.)
□ Play money and coins, either plastic or real: 25 pennies, 20
dimes, 20 nickels, and 10 quarters.
□ Box of 100 or 200 straws and about 20 rubber bands
□ Egg carton, with two cups cut off to make a 2x5 grid.
□ Deck of cards
□ 2 dice
□ Clock with hands that move
□ Index cards
□ Ruler
□ Printables (below)
o 100+ chart
o Ten-frames
o 10x10 grids
o Fraction bars
To learn more about how to use any of the items, visit
kateshomeschoolmath.com/mathtoolbox.
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Kate’s Homeschool Math Help’s Minimalist Manipulative Kit
100+ Chart
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Kate’s Homeschool Math Help’s Minimalist Manipulative Kit
Ten-frames
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Kate’s Homeschool Math Help’s Minimalist Manipulative Kit
10x10 grids
Use each grid to represent one whole and shade in decimals and percentages.
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Kate’s Homeschool Math Help’s Minimalist Manipulative Kit
Fraction bars
Print two copies of this chart and cut apart on the lines. Leave one chart
blank and have your child label the fractions on the other chart. The top bar
represents one whole, the two parts of the next bar each represent one-half,
and so on.
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Kate’s Homeschool Math Help’s Minimalist Manipulative Kit