Two-sided Counters: sold in sets of 1000 through Spectrum (product # 92026). 1 set will be plenty for your school. 2 if you are a large school (250+ students).
Transparent Bingo Chips: sold in sets of 1000 though Amazon. Great for games and modelling multiplication. 2 sets would give you a good-sized class set.
Base 10 Blocks: Expensive, but necessary. Learning Resources has sets of 600 pieces (including 200 rods, 20 flats and 3 thousand cubes). If you don’t have any, you’ll need at least 4 sets. If you would prefer a set of base 10 blocks that interlock to create solids, then we recommend this set from Scholar’s Choice.
Multi-link “Snap” cubes: these ones on Learning Resources are easy to put together and take apart. Highly recommended.
Colour Tiles: sold in sets of 400 through Learning Resources. 2 sets would be ideal. This would provide a class of 28 students enough to share in order to model multiplication.
Dominos: great for counting and for modelling addition and multiplication. You have 2 options: sets up to 12 dots and sets up to 18 dots. I recommend purchasing 4 sets of the 12-dot dominos for your school through Spectrum (product #14638). The 18-dot dominos are more appropriate for intermediate only (product #83208).
Pattern Blocks: Spectrum (#94377)has the best price by far. 250 pattern blocks for $15.95. Recommended to buy 3 sets to build an appropriate class set.
Plastic coins: an essential for skip counting, financial literacy and decimal place value. We recommend purchasing 2 of these Canadian coin sets from Spectrum (product # 10710).
Cuisenaire Rods: you will need to purchase 2 sets of six for your school. The wooden ones are expensive, but will last forever. Here are the cheapest ones I have found so far. The plastic ones are less expensive, but not as durable. Here is a set through Amazon.
Decahedra Dice (10-sided dice, 0-9): Sold in sets of 6 through Spectrum or 1 at a time through Box Cars and One-Eyed Jacks. Recommended to purchase at least 5 sets if going with spectrum or 30 dice if going through Box Cars.
Icosahedra Dice (20-sided dice, 1-20): Sold in sets of 6 through Spectrum. Recommended to purchase at least 5 sets.
Decahedra Dice (10-sided tens, hundreds and thousands): These are amazing for place value and partial sums/products practice. Single dice sold through Box Cars and One-Eyed Jacks for $0.50 each.
Cube Dice (6-sided, dot configuration): Commonly sold everywhere. Create a set of 30 dice.
Magnetic Teaching Tools:
- Ten frames: A welcome edition to the primary classroom! Ten frames are essential for demonstrating strategies for making ten and beyond. These ones from Learning Resources are wonderful for whole class demonstration and individual station use.
- Cuisenaire rods: Buy two sets for yourself! There aren’t quite enough to model common denominators. These ones from Spectrum (product # 91450) are the cheapest we have found at this point.
Straws and Connectors (Roylco): For modelling large numbers (from thousands to millions) in intermediate. Recommended to purchase 3 sets of 705. Or: ask your primary teachers to borrow their sets for a time. Sold on Amazon.ca or from your local toy store.