Tuesday, April 6, 2010

Cuisenaire Rods

The other day while staring at the stacks of packed and half-unpacked boxes still in our garage, I noticed a box containing some of my old teaching supplies. There were all sorts of math manipulatives: counters, color tiles, pattern blocks, and Cuisenaire rods.  I brought them inside the house and quickly forgot all about the organizing I was supposed to do in the garage.

Today seemed like a good day to introduce the kids to the Cuisenaire rods because I'm still recovering from Easter and wasn't up for activities involving paint, glue, or anything else messy.  I really wasn't sure what the kids would do with the rods, but I wasn't too surprised when at first they built buildings and towers...

But then Daniel made see-saws:
And that sparked creativity in everyone else.  We had a train, boat, helicopter, airplane, scissors, and even the letter B.
The last picture is Daniel and his letter B.  It does kind of look like a lower-case B, even though he doesn't know what it is yet!  

3 comments:

Laura said...

You were (are) a teacher! Have you thought about home schooling this crew? Do you what a natural you would be???

Jamie said...

I remember playing with counting blocks/rods like that in first grade, what I remember most is when David puked all over them! ha! how's that for a good memory! glad no one puked on your rods!

Jamie said...
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