Virtual Math Manipulatives

The start of school means fishing out your teaching supplies and often math manipulatives to help bring the *something shiny* into your lessons. Maybe you can't find all of your base ten blocks, or your play money, or those super nifty fraction pieces. Have no fear...the web is here =)

There are many sites that offer free online math manipulatives in SO MANY formats. Below you'll find a list of resources for math manipulatives and activities. I'm highlighting the ones I know and love, but please add your own if I missed something fantastic!


Illuminations: Resources for Teaching Math - http://illuminations.nctm.org/
The National Council of Teachers of Mathematics has a fantastic site that offers MANY resources. To get to the activity resources, click on the Activities link from the main page. You can then search by a grade range or select all grades to search. The resources here are numerous and display quite large on your screen.


Some of my favs are: Equivalent Fractions, Grouping and Grazing (for counting, addition & subtraction)

eManipulatives - http://www.eduplace.com/kids/hmtxm/ 
This is a Houghton Mifflin Harcourt site that has math emanipulatives sorted by grade level. Follow the steps below.

1. Go to  http://www.eduplace.com/kids/hmtxm/ 
2. Select your grade level (Or just go to 5th grade as it seems to have all of the manipulatives listed =)
3. Click the link for eManipulatives
4. Pick from the list of available manipulatives.

Some of my favs are:  Coins and Bills, Base Ten Blocks, and Number Lines

National Library of Virtual Manipulatives -  http://nlvm.usu.edu/en/nav/vlibrary.html
I really like the setup of this site that is published by Utah State University. On the main page you will see a grid sorted by skills and grade level, just click the cell you want to get started! 


Some of my favs are: Color Patterns, Bar Chart
 Math Playground: Math Manipulatives - http://www.mathplayground.com/math_manipulatives.html
This site contains some great manipulatives and models for math. From the link above you will get to the main page that contains all of the math manipulatives available on this site. I really like that there are preview pics of the tools so that you can easily see if it's along the lines of what you're looking for. Just click the one you want to use to get started.

Some of my favs are: Fraction Scale & Math Bars

Prezi.com for Math!

I'm in Austin this week at TCEA and have been learning about so many cool tech tools and tips that I have to share some. Just today I heard from a 3rd grade teacher that is using Prezi with her students to map out "blueprints" of math problems. (If you don't know about Prezi go check it out at www.prezi.com and visit their "Learn" tab as it is a great & fun alternative to PowerPoint.) The idea is that students first map out their work of a math problem. Then after viewing a sample Prezi, the students create a mind map (she used paper & pencil) of how they would like to set-up their math blueprint in Prezi so that they can teach it to the class. The students then use Prezi and create their presentation that they can later share with the class.

To create an educator Prezi account you can click here. The free version is great! If you have any questions please let me know and I'll be happy to help!

Scholastic Study Jams...for Math & Science

Scholastic has a site with some pretty cool, and brief, math and science videos. Click on "Math" or "Science" from the menu to view all of the topics for that subject. Click the topic that you want to view to see more options. It's easy to get started just go to http://studyjams.scholastic.com/. I learned about this site from Kelly Tenkley and her iLearn Technology blog.

Math Manipulatives

The Math Manipulatives portion of the Math Playground site offers some great Math tools. You will find Fraction Scales, Fraction Bars, Decimal Scales, Probability Spinners, Pattern Blocks and many others. The tools allow you to manipulate and add your own information to solve or explore a problem.

Fraction Bars (pictured above) allows you to set the numerator and denominator for each row by sliding to a different value. The number titles can be turned on or off.

Classroom Application

No registration is required to use the site which makes it easy for teachers and students to use. Teachers can use the products to illustrate problems and concepts. These tools can also be used by students to assist them in solving problems.

Have fun and enjoy!