Cuisenaire Rods

In math, the students have been introduced to an amazing manipulative called Cuisenaire rods. The proportional relationships between the pieces and the colour wheel connections make Cuisenaire rods both aesthetically pleasing and mathematically significant.  The first thing we had to do was to make the connection of each colour to a number.  The students played games to become more fluent with finding the rod to match it's value. 

We even came up with some ways to help us remember some, such as:

4 - bubble gum

5 - bee hive

6 - green stix

7 - lucky licorice

8 - ate the chocolate

9 - waves

 

 

Here is a link to some videos showing the many ways that these rods are used to teach math in fun and engaging ways.

http://www.cuisenaire.co.uk/index.php/home/videos/cuisenaire-rods-in-the-classroom