For years a box of cuisenaire rods has been gathering dust among my maths resources. The students occasionally get them out to make patterns with and I have used them to learn about place value but I had never understood their true potential.
That was until I discovered this NZ Maths Unit!
Students assign a value to each rod based on the assumption that the white block's value is one. This was done through play and exploration.
The students then explored the relationship between the rods. Working together sharing their discoveries and then sharing back to the class was super powerful!
Students were then given a number e.g., 10, and asked to create a train to represent that value and then from there a mat of combinations that all hold that value.
This is an activity that can be used time and again with different numbers and adapted to suit different learning intentions.
Now that I have unlocked the power of this resource I'm kicking myself that I never asked someone how to use this resource. Such a hands-on resource and perfect for creating open-ended learning activities!
