Manipulatives For Conceptualization.

This is a good video illustrating the power of manipulatives to help conceptualize numbers and relative amounts. It uses pennies.



Base ten blocks and other math manipulates also help with this. Here you see base ten manipulatives called basic operations pieces, complete with a ten thousand square. You can change the scale several times and work your way up to trillions. They are very useful for teaching exponents getting a handle on 10², 10³, 10⁴, as well as higher power algebra.

In the picture you can see we have changed the scale and made what used to be a unit 100 and now the 10,000 square is a million!

But as you see at Crewton Ramone's House of Math, lots of things can be used for math manipulatives including macaroni, raisins, and oranges.