How Maths Manipulatives Transform KS2 Lessons [Mastery]

Maths manipulatives and hands on concrete resources have always been acceptable in the Early Years, Foundation Stage and Key Stage 1 classroom as a method of teaching primary maths concepts, but only recently have they been considered relevant in KS2 maths.

The adoption of maths manipulatives or concrete resources is driven by the move towards a maths mastery approach in schools.

If you know you just want to grab a copy of one of our most popular resources ever, here’s the link to the list of the 15 best hands on manipulative examples and how to use them: Download the Ultimate Guide to Maths Manipulatives.

Using manipulatives to help teach KS2 Maths

At first, children need hands on and visual hooks to understand new concepts in Maths. This is true whether they are simply learning to count or exploring patterns in algebra.

It’s also why counting cubes, making ‘cookies’ out of play dough, using plastic coins to pay for these ‘cookies’ have long been key ways to teach concepts to younger pupils in Key Stage 1 maths.

In Key Stage 2 we decrease the chances of children realising the concepts for themselves if we stop using maths manipulatives at this point. Essentially, we could be denying children the most powerful type of learning!

With mathematics itself being abstract, concrete maths manipulatives provide the learner a ‘window’ in, to make sense of the problem at hand by touching them, playing with them, exploring the patterns and relationships which make a huge difference between understanding for depth or just for procedure.

Research has shown that teaching with physical manipulatives has significant positive impact on learning in Maths (Carbonneau, K.J., Marley, S.C. & Selig, J.P. 2013), a summary of their main findings can be accessed here.

Certainly, the Asian-style model of Mathematics teaching strongly advocates using manipulatives in the classroom, with the concrete pictorial abstract approach they’ve popularised. But before you think, “Great – let’s just get out some practical resources each lesson and all pupils will succeed!”, there is more! You see, it’s also about how pupils use the equipment and relate what they are doing practically to the problem you’ve asked them to solve!

Hands on resources are a tool

It is fundamental that children understand that what they have in their hands is a tool to help them make sense of the underpinning ideas of Maths, and not as a implement to depend on to work out the Maths each time. If the latter happens, then children become dependent on the equipment and the manipulative then becomes a ‘crutch’ to rely on.

What not to do with manipulatives in a classroom

My own experiences draws me back to a lesson I observed where the teacher, with the utmost of good intentions, set about teaching her Y3 class all about subtraction with decomposition, with the use of Dienes blocks.

Fantastic you may think! So did I. Until I realised that she had gone about it in a fashion where she was demonstrating and modelling how to decompose the numbers by just telling them what to do as opposed to letting the class find out for themselves.

It then became apparent that many children in the class were simply mimicking the procedure of decomposition they had seen their teacher do, without any real understanding of what was going on. They followed the ‘steps’ and although came to the correct solution with the blocks, could not then relate this back to the algorithm that was subsequently taught later on. Just because practical equipment is being used, if not used correctly, it will actually have a detrimental effect.

Mastery involves variation

As you know, the key to mastery is the ability to use and apply while making sense of Mathematics across topics, one step towards achieving this is through variation – variation of the problem posed, but also variation on the manipulatives used. By this I mean, there is not just one practical resource used for a particular type of question. For instance, when teaching number and place value, you could use Numicon, bead strings, Dienes blocks, place value counters, 100 square…the list goes on!

Let the pupils choose the resources for greater depth

If we are encouraging children to become independent learners, they should then also have the choice of which manipulative they think would best suit the task and then be able to reflect on and explain what they did. To encourage greater depth of understanding, could the student use different manipulatives to prove the same answer?

The Best Maths Equipment List For Primary

So, once you know you need them, how do you choose the collection of maths manipulatives for your primary classroom? Well, ordinarily it’s a case of trial and error, and nabbing a few ideas from your teacher friends. But no longer. We’ve done the legwork for you so here is our Ultimate Guide to Maths Manipulatives.

This is the only maths equipment list you’ll need at primary school and best of all we’ve included lots of ideas to get them on the cheap.

Looking for more maths mastery resources?

• White Rose Maths Hub: How To Find The Resources You Need
• Maths Mastery Toolkit for Year 1 to Year 6
• Year 6 Word Problems and How To Solve Them Using Bar Modelling Techniques

Read more: What is a bar model

Do you have pupils who need extra support in maths?
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Since 2013 we’ve helped over 150,000 primary and secondary school pupils become more confident, able mathematicians. Learn more or request a personalised quote for your school to speak to us about your school’s needs and how we can help.