How to Make and Use Math Manipulatives for Time and Money Lessons
This is the fourth installment of Education Tools! How to Make and Use Math Manipulatives for Time and Money Lessons.
Easy, Inexpensive Ideas for Making Math Manipulatives to Teach Children to Tell Time and Count Money
Alright! First off is telling time.
Teaching time with manipulatives
The best tool for teaching time, of course, is a clock.
Old clocks, even if they don't run anymore on their own, make a great manipulative. If you don't have one lying around, check at garage sales or thrift shops. You'll want to find one with the numbers written on it clearly, or an open-face clock that you can write numbers on with a marker.
As long as your child is able to move the hands with ease, you can use it to teach her how to tell time.
If you can't find an old clock, you can make a model from a paper or plastic plate.
How do you do this?
- Punch a hole in the center of the plate and attach two clock hands (can be simple strips of cardboard, one longer than the other) with a brass paper fastener.
- Write the numbers 1 through 12 around the edges.
- Between each number, make four dots, to help with counting minutes or seconds.
How to practice telling time
Practice time telling by asking the child questions such as, "what time do we have lunch?" or "what time is your favorite TV show?" Allow the child to place the hands of the clock pointing at the correct numbers. Then ask a child to calculate ahead by asking questions such as, "if it takes us 45 minutes to eat lunch, what time will it be when we are finished?" or "if your show is an hour long, what time will it end?"
Teaching Money with Manipulatives
Nothing is a more effective tool for teaching money than real money.
Personally, I do not think that cheap plastic money (of poor quality) resembles real money enough for the child to really carry over their understanding. From experience, I've found that they'll just have to be taught again with real money any way. Good quality fake money is so expensive that you might as well just use the real thing. At least that way, when you are done with the lessons, you still have your money to put back into your wallet, instead of a package of toy money on the shelf waiting for your next garage sale.
Break a $5 bill at the bank or grocery store. Ask for a rolls of pennies (50), ten nickles, ten dimes, eight quarters, and two fifty-cent pieces. If you don't have lots of paper cash at hand, you can use paper money from board games you might already have. Put that fake money to work, your child can even draw on (fake) paper money. Real paper money is nice, but I've found that having real coins are more important than 'real' paper. If you're at a loss for finding play money, go buy some paper bills on Amazon.
A fun way to teach money to children is to incorporate it into imaginative play. Let your child pretend to run a store, or a bank, and play the part of the shopper. Have the child "stock" the store with some toys or household items, then "purchase" them and let the child count out change. Switch places so that you are the merchant and your child is the customer. This is just one potentially fun game that will help children to quickly learn to count and exchange money.
Be creative! Take action and start doing. Most likely your child will encourage you towards the best types of games for them to play.
Leave me feedback on what games you're playing with your children!
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