Online Math Manipulatives and Activities

Check out the National Library of Virtual Manipulatives! Right now this is a free site, and I’m not sure it will stay that way because the site is already advertising their activities on CD. However, for now teachers can use this site in math class for free. The site offers a variety of online math manipulatives for K-12 ranging from Base Ten Blocks, to geoboards, and spinners. Now you can use these items without the mess! Virtual clean-up! I used the geoboards in my class and laughed - the children were still expecting the rubber bands to snap off the screen and hit them.

Another one of my favorite sites is the interactive online clock. Project this website in class to help your class tell time on an analog clock. Using the red and green buttons at the bottom of the screen will allow you to create different times on the clock. Notice that the sun and moon will rise and set in the background as you change the time, which helps the children distinguish between AM and PM. If you use an interactive whiteboard, this site is even better since students can come to the board and use the buttons to change the time in class. Use the button on the right side, you can also display the time in a digital clock, so the students can compare the clocks side by side. Since you can hide the digital clock, it’s great for quizzing the kids on the analog clock since they can check their work on the digital clock.

A few other sites worth checking out for math instruction:

1. Online graphing calculator
2. Interactive Math Games (such as Arithmetic Four)
3. Create a graph
4. More virtual manipulatives