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)
