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Stir The Wonder

Charlotte Mason Inspired Learning

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Homeschool Math Preschool

Free & Affordable Math Manipulatives

As we dive deeper into our learning and understanding of early math concepts, I have started a collection of free and affordable math manipulatives to use with my preschool-aged son as we learn with hands-on math activities. It hasn’t taken much money to collect these different math manipulatives. In fact most of our manipulatives are objects and toys we already had. We have just given them another purpose, the purpose of hands-on math learning! 🙂 In this article you will get some ideas for objects to use as math manipulatives, as well as some ideas for how to use them and store them!

Free & Affordable Math Manipulatives for Kids to use with hands-on learning activities!

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The Hands-On Activities for Kids Monthly Link-Up is a place to stop by every month to share your hands-on learning activity posts! Brought to you each month by Stir the Wonder and Enchanted Homeschooling Mom.

Hands-On Activities for Kids

Free Math Manipulatives

There are many options for obtaining math manipulatives for free! One of the best ways to start collecting is through recycling or upcycling! Another way to get items for math manipulatives is to head outside and collect natural objects! Here is a list of ideas to collect:

Nature Manipulatives & Activities 

  • Rocks (Number Pebbles)
  • Small Twigs (Counting & Grouping with Sticks)
  • Acorns (Outdoor Acorn Math Activities)
  • Maple Helicopter Seeds (Counting Helicopter Seeds)
  • Shells (Shell Memory Math Game)
  • Pine Cones (Pine Cone Math Station) 

Recycling 

  • Milk Caps (Milk Cap Number Matching)
  • Bread Tabs 
  • Pouch Caps
  • Cardboard Tubes (Number Recognition & Ordering with Paper Tubes)

Free & Affordable Math Manipulatives

Affordable Math Manipulatives

I have also been collecting affordable math manipulatives from The Dollar Tree, Target Dollar Spot and Oriental Trading! These three stores always have an assortment of small objects that are perfect for using with hands-on math activities! Check out this list of cheap math manipulatives! 

  • Assorted table scatter (perfect for holiday and seasonal themes)
  • Foam Shape Counters
  • Clothespins
  • Plastic Links
  • Mini Erasers
  • Pom Poms
  • Buttons
  • Beads
  • Glass Gem Stones
  • Plastic Coins
  • Craft Sticks
  • Coffee Stirrers
  • Straws
  • Pipe Cleaners

Toys as Math Manipulatives

Small toys also make great math manipulatives! Some popular items I’ve seen used include Duplos, LEGOs, cars, and animal figures. Below are some great ideas using toys for learning math!

  • Duplo Blocks Counting & Tower Matching 
  • Counting and Measuring with LEGO
  • Learning about Fractions with LEGO
  • Hands-on Multiplication: Grouping with LEGO
  • Parking Lot Math Game
  • How to Teach Subtraction with Cars
  • Preschool Math using Toy Animal Figures

Food as Math Manipulatives

Another fun item I like to use occasional for hands-on math activities is food! Sugary cereals and candy are always a special treat in our house and make great math manipulatives! Dyed pasta and beans also make great math manipulatives! Below are some fun ideas for using food for learning math!

  • Animal Cracker Counting
  • Candy Heart Catapult: Measuring Distance 
  • Math Games with Candy
  • Jelly Bean Math
  • Gingerbread & Gumdrops Grid Game

How to Store Math Manipulatives

Storing Math Manipulatives

I store many of our math manipulatives in this divider box. This box is large enough to store a good amount of small objects and the dividers keep them all organized! I also keep more manipulatives in plastic baggies in a clear plastic shoe box container. Both of these options work well for us.


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7 Comments

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Comments

  1. The Fairy & The Frog (@frog_fairy) says

    May 3, 2015 at 4:39 am

    Love this post great ideas , favs in our house are shells and conkers (horse chestnunts). Lots of other lovely ideas(I’ve pinned too)

    Reply
    • Samantha says

      May 3, 2015 at 8:35 pm

      Thank you!

      Reply
  2. Emma says

    May 11, 2015 at 4:48 am

    I especially love the recyclables – I never realized how many things could be math manipulatives!

    Reply
    • Samantha says

      May 11, 2015 at 9:25 am

      Yes its true many can be used as manipulatives!

      Reply
  3. Abhi says

    December 1, 2015 at 2:24 am

    I liked this post alot. Lovely and wonderful ideas for math manipulatives that kids can do.

    Reply

Trackbacks

  1. 10 Ways to Count Outside | Liz's Early Learning Spot says:
    July 18, 2016 at 5:02 pm

    […] Free and affordable math manipulatives from Stir the Wonder. This isn’t a counting post, but has a nice list of ideas of objects you can use as manipulatives! Handy to grab and take outside. […]

    Reply
  2. Math Manipulatives Every Classroom Should Have – Proud to be Primary says:
    September 21, 2018 at 5:27 pm

    […] fun searching for materials in your home or find them for cheap at the dollar store. Read about free and affordable math manipulatives from Stir the […]

    Reply

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