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Bring on the New but don't throw out the best of the Old
This white board resource for 7 and 8 year olds, combines the tried and trusted old style manipulatives with modern interactive teaching. Go further down this web page to the green section "[3] Activities for 7 to 8 year olds" where a teacher can print and make Notation Boards with cardboard tens and units for a whole class. Back at this point on the web site, the teacher can click the picture opposite to open an electronic resource to replicate counting to 99 on a Notation Board with cardboard manipulatives. [Note to users: You can count forward and backwards only once without resetting - see button in top right of interactive window]

Many teachers across the EU, former MOL and CLICK Course participants and Comenius colleagues of mine, have requested free access to these resources. Although they were developed and designed with the Irish primary school curriculum in mind, the class levels and age groups have been adapted to suit the wider European teaching community.

To begin to learn any new concept, a child’s mathematical development requires hands-on experience with real objects and equipment. The teacher (and supportive adult) can guide the child actively through a series of steps to ensure a gradual understanding of each concept. Most of this work can be achieved without recourse to pencil and paper. Next the text book and copybook provides written practice. Finally, if modern technology is available, interactive challenges can add an element of fun and excitement to round off and complete the process. The order is important ie. pencil-free fun-filled activities with real equipment, text book and written work for consolidation and finally concept re-enforcement and challenge using technology.

This web site provides most of what's required (in terms of flat manipulative equipment) to get children actively involved in their maths numeracy learning. There are 12 Do-sheets with the steps a parent or teacher can follow to guide the child through the activities at each level for 5 to 11 year olds. The essential equipment for all the activities is provided here completely FREE. Just download, print and cut out. There are: Number strips, number pieces, digit cards, symbols, counters, counting boards, transition boards (both Tens & Ones as well as Hundreds, Tens & Ones), 100-squares, fraction walls, fraction pies, shapes for area and perimeter, nets of shapes. Just download the individual Overview Sheet for any pair of Do-Sheets, download individual Do-Sheets and individual Manipulatives. Print and cut out (paste to cardboard and laminate if you prefer). You can get a complete overview of the entire range of activities and manipulatives by clicking the link below. This is an A3-size poster which would be a useful guide in updating a school maths plan. PRINTING HINT: If you have a colour printer which can output large A3-size prints - set your print options to print the large option. Otherwise print to A4 as normal.

for a complete overview for all levels click here

Click any image
on this web page
to download a
high resolution
single page
A4 or large A3
®PDF document

There are activities with
the 100-Square
for all the age groups
from 7 to 11 years.
These activites range from
counting and ordering numbers,
discovering patterns in + and - ,
discovering primes and
common multiples

The Hundreds Tens & Units
Notation Board and
Transition Board
are suited to
8 and 9 year olds

>>>>>>>>>>
The links
on the right
open two 2-page
documents

>>>>>>>
The single link
on the right
opens a 2-page
document