You may remember that I showed these awesome tubs I found in the Target Dollar Spot this summer:

We have been using them each day to help us represent numbers in different ways.

First, we use each of the materials (unifix cubes, homemade Rekenrek’s, two-sided counters, dice, pattern blocks, and 1 inch tiles) to show the number we are learning about.  On this day, we were representing the number 5 in different ways.  I do not show them how to represent the numbers, I just tell them to use a manipulative to show me the number and this is what they came up with. 🙂

I put the tubs on the floor between groups of 4 children and they use the materials that are in their tub.  We store these on the floor under our Promethean Board.