Math Toolkits for Students: The Basics (part 2)

In the first toolkit post I set the background for toolkits, so now let’s look the the really important part — what goes into the tookits. I will first list items that I have used and recommended for all students in grades 1 to 7. (Please note that the toolkit idea may even be useful in grades 8 and 9, but I have not personally used them in those grades or carefully looked at the curriculum to see which tools might be useful in a toolkit.) Toolkit Contents for grades 1-7:

• A response board and appropriate tool for writing
• A large, laminated 100 chart and/or 0-99 chart
• A large, laminated 100-dot array (see illustration — I LOVE this tool!!!!)
• A mini-deck of cards (playing cards ace to 10, one of each)
• A set on numerals 0-9 (two of each is best) along with symbols for “greater than”, “less than”, and “equals” — also a decimal point for older students
• Bingo chips or punched-paper circles (in a snack-sized zip baggie)
• A piece of string (random length for each child), wrapped around a piece of box-board to keep it “tidy”
• A ruler marked in cm (also mm for older students)
• Pattern blocks (either real, or die cut out of construction paper, in a snack-sized zip baggie)
• Blank spinners, with pre-marked sections — paper part only
• Paper clips to use as the spinning part of “fast spinners”
• small mirror(s) — hinged ones are fabulous!!

In reality, it is hard for me to put this list out there without stopping at every item and going through a set of activities that uses the particular tool — thus I do a workshop about creating and using toolkits! But for now I will just post the list and elaborate if someone has a question about a particular item. Mathematically yours, Carollee