Eureka! We Found Manipulatives!

Eureka! We Found Manipulatives
Does taking out math manipulatives make you cringe? I made one of my teaching strategy goals to “bust out the math manipulatives”. It still makes my heart stop, thinking of the disasters that can occur when giving my second graders tools to use, BUT I DID IT!!! AND IT HAS BEEN AWESOME!!!!! If I can do it, then you can do it!
Remember those math bags (pictured above)? When they were delivered to my class I hid them in a drawer! I felt like those manipulative math bags, and myself had a “stare down” and I won! I shoved them in my cabinet for many years! I am embarrassed to admit it, but as the saying goes “The first step is a confession.” Right?
	Confession #2. I have struggled to get Eureka math under control in my classroom. One of the struggles I had was my students were bored and “not-getting-it.” I heard a little whisper from my cabinets saying, “Use us! We can help!” I decided to “BUST OUT” those bags. It was like Christmas when I handed the math bags out, the students were so excited to use them. First, I wanted to name the math bags,  and the kids came up with “wallets” and “purses”. In those bags was what students needed to survive in math, and of course, they recognized the “dolla’ dolla’ bills”! Naming something gives it personal value. So, of course, we laid our wallets and purses on our desk all zipped up and I discussed some ground rules. The first was students could only take out and explore the ‘tool’ for that day. Second, some obvious rules that go out the window when something tangible is given too little hands: 1. Don’t put them in your mouth and they are tools, not toys. Next, I demonstrated what my desk would like and how to put the tools back and how to store them for later. Lastly, I had to warn students and tell them if they could not have self-control, I would zip up their wallet and they would not have them back until the next time we bust them out. (I know the old teacher threat! But show them grace. They are little learners. Give it back to them next time for another try.)
Do you hear that learning buzz in the classroom? Every single student is engaged and learning!!! Math was so much fun! I could also see the progression of “I do it”, “we do it”, and “you do it”! This happened during EUREKA MATH! Success! FUN! LEARNING!
	Don’t be scared to try new things!  Take a risk, if it doesn’t work adjust it, and make it work! Maite McRaney