Montessori math manipulatives from recycled trash: Easy, free DIY math activities

Educational wisdom says hands-on learning works best for kids. Here are hands-on Montessori math activities using homemade Math Their Way type manipulatives from recycled trash. Make easy, free or cheap eco-friendly math lesson plans for learning centers Homeschool parents, keep Montessori math activities on hand for homework help and summer enrichment. Use these math manipulatives to teach place value, addition, subtraction, carrying, borrowing, multiplication, division, fractions, decimals, percent, story problems, sorting and classifying, even basic algebra. 

Milk rings from recycled trash. Use milk rings in different colors to teach place value. Bundle in groups of ten like Montessori base10 blocks. Teach math operations of addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. 

Twist ties and bread tags from recycled trash: As with milk rings, bundle different colors together to show groups of ten or one hundred. Use like Montessori golden beads. Math Their Way uses milk rings, twist ties and bread tags for place value, sorting, counting and classifying. 

Play dough math manipulatives. Save play dough scraps and give each child a tub. Have students make clay numbers or clay balls to count. Students can also roll clay out and cut with cookie cutters to create shapes, patterns and Montessori style geometric solids. 

Dice math activities: Keep these as car games for math facts practice, homework help or summer enrichment. Play multiplication, division, subtraction and addition games. Shake two die and add, subtract, divide or multiply the two numbers. 

Recycled game pieces. Save old game pieces, bingo or poker chips and game tokens to use for counting, like Montessori Teddy Bear Counters. Play Math Their Way sorting, classifying and organizing math games. Use to demonstrate story problems. Teach ratio, percent and fractions lesson plans. 

Domino math games . Dominoes make great hands-on math manipulatives. Use as car games for homework help and summer enrichment, practicing times tables and math facts. Have students add, subtract or multiply the dots shown on the domino. 

Playing cards. Recycle and repurpose mismatched playing cards as flashcards. Have students play math games like war, only they add, subtract or multiply the cards drawn. These make great car games for homework practice and summer enrichment. 

Stickers for DIY flash cards and math worksheets. Repurpose partially used sheets of stickers to make DIY math flashcards and math problems. Students create math problems by writing numbers on blank stickers. Students can also use picture stickers to show story problems. 

Yarn and straws. Cut straws into equal pieces and have students "string" straw pieces like beads.  Use for counting and patterns, abacus math and fine motor skills practices. 

Beads. String mismatched beads from broken jewelry and use like a DIY abacus, golden beads or base 10 blocks. 

Cardboard. Cut cardboard strips to make rulers for measurement, base 10 bars (like Cuisenaire Rods). Teach place value, geometry, multiplication, division. Make fraction bars and fraction pies from recycled cardboard. Make flashcards and file folder games. Here are some free printables for file folder games. (From ABCs to ACTs blog)

Habitat Science Tubs and Preschool Learning Center Activities

Preschool and Elementary Science Learning Center Ideas for Habitat Study Learning occurs best when it's interactive. Bring hands-on, cross-curricular activities to every preschool classroom learning center. Studying different countries, cultures or habitats in your classroom? Here are hands-on science center activities. 

Montessori type learning centers focus on hands-on child-led mastery learning, individual work stations and play as work activities. Activities in learning centers aim for mastery learning through exploration and task completion. Montessori science learning centers are also called sensory or sensorial learning areas. Here's a system for portable exploratory science tubs with task-oriented science experiments and activities for mastery learning.

Montessori learning centers are organized, precise and minimal. Instead of a jumble of toys, there are specific ordered learning materials with task-oriented goals. Children work in individual work stations instead of desks or tables. These are usually portable mats rolled out on the floor. Portable unit-based science tubs work well. Materials in science tubs may be preset on stationary learning mats and children rotate through learning centers to complete activities. Or children may select science tubs, bring them to their mat work stations where they interact with materials to accomplish educational tasks.

To create exploratory science tubs, you'll need small plastic boxes with lids, baskets and different science unit materials. Stacking boxes or drawers in a rolling cart work well too. You might also use zippered plastic bags for individual science units. You will arrange materials by content area. When you're studying a particular content area, you'll remove materials from drawer or box and place in baskets. This makes learning materials more appealing and approachable.

Themes for exploratory science tubs include: magnets, matters, animal classification, mammals, reptiles, air, water, weather, measurement, polymers, plants, rocks and minerals, chemistry, seeds and seed carriers, feathers, electricity, atoms, food, bubbles, bugs, spiders, electronics. Place materials to explore in science tubs. Add several related follow up tasks for mastery learning--flashcards, worksheets, matching games. Children can do mastery learning tasks in science journals for follow up.

Make available tools for exploratory science: microscope, slides, magnifying glass, tweezers, magnifying box, telescope, gram balance scale, ruler, protractor, measuring tape. On the top surface of the plastic science tubs shelf, draw outlines of tools so children know where to place tools when finished. You could also make a pegboard for them to hang tools. Children perform exploratory science tasks and then return materials to original places so other children can use them