DIY Base 10 Blocks
Learning Base 10 is an important concept for the development of key math skills such as place value, borrowing, regrouping, and more. While we highly recommend getting your hands on a solid set of Base 10 blocks, you can also make a useful set at home with a few items you might have lying around anyway!
Materials:
- Popsicle Sticks (Jumbo size if you have them)
- Dried Beans (Pinto or Lima work well. Elbow macaroni or stickers would work here too. )
- Glue (liquid, not a glue stick)
Once you’ve decided on the materials you’re going to use for your homemade Base 10 blocks, then you can assemble them super quick! Simply glue ten beans on each popsicle stick. Leave a little space between the beans to make it easier to count the beans.
Once you make ten sticks you might consider gluing them together to make 100. Then you’ll have a 100 block for students to visually see the individual sticks of ten. You could glue some blank sticks to the back in order to connect them if desired. The single beans will count as the “ones.”
Printable Base 10 Blocks
If you’d rather just print some Base 10 blocks you can do that too! File Folder Fun has some FREE Base 10 printables you can use to create hundreds, tens, and ones. We recommend printing the Base 10 Template on differently colored card stock paper for best results.
Interactive Math Curriculum
Interactive Math Notebook for Kindergarten
This comprehensive kindergarten math curriculum provides you with a full year of hands-on math lessons, games and activities. This complete set includes an interactive daily warm-up folder and optional printable math manipulatives. Covering 4 days/Week over 36-weeks, students complete a daily worksheet alongside a daily game or interactive activity. Designed to keep students engaged while keeping the prep-work to a minimum this set coordinates perfectly with our R.E.A.D. Curriculum Notebook.
Comments (4)
In our history curriculum, we learn about cultures and events around
the world. It was hard for my boys to keep track of where the countries
were that we had learned about. So I got a big world map and taped it
to the wall. As we learned about a country, my boys would draw a small
picture of something to remember about that country and tape it to the map
on the appropriate spot. A pyramid went on Egypt, the Great Wall on China,
the Colosseum on Rome, etc. It helped the boys learn the location of
the countries on the map and gave a great review of history in the process.
I’d completely forgotten about doing that.
I was looking for some Montessori inspired math and these sticks are perfect! Thanks!
Started by making a giant set of upper and lower case letters when she was 2 from felt using 26 different colors, one for each letter. We would chase her around asking for our upper/lower case red/blue/green letter A back. Then, shortly after, a felt ABC running game where she had to pass the “troll” by saying the password (the letter). WAter beads for color mixing then using Clear Tubing for a math/multiplication grid. Currently making a set of base 10 blocks with plaster of paris and tiny ice cube trays (work in progress). Finishing up the Papercake Craft Fractions for equivalents and the corresponding “fraction” puzzles and/or game to go with it. when played, will upload. Made a PVC Pipe Felt Playhouse for teaching her address, the second wall is a grocery store that will be used to teach coins with her real working cash register and later to teach addition etc.