Manipulatives in the primary classroom
Take some ... cubes
Even and odd
Chairs and tables
Make a chair and table out of interlocking cubes, making sure that the chair fits under the table!
Numbers as shapes
Building with cubes
Three block towers
Take three differently coloured blocks - maybe red, yellow and blue. Make a tower using one of each colour. How many different towers can you make?
Making sticks
Cubes here and there
Up and down staircases
One block is needed to make an up-and-down staircase, with one step up and one step down. How many blocks would be needed to build an up-and-down staircase with 5 steps up and 5 steps down?
Brush loads
How can you arrange the 5 cubes so that you need the smallest number of Brush Loads of paint to cover them? Try with other numbers of cubes as well.
Picture a pyramid
Imagine a pyramid which is built in square layers of small cubes. If we number the cubes from the top, starting with 1, can you picture which cubes are directly below this first cube?