remember the first time I introduced a manipulative to my class. At a workshop,I had learned how students could use geoboards to explore the areas of shapes, astandard textbook topic. I was excited and ready, but nervous.
I gave a geoboard to each student, distributed a cup of rubber bands to eachpair, and gave time for exploration. Within a minute, chaos reigned. The cupswere empty; every geoboard was full. Some students slouched in their chairswaiting for instructions. A few strummed the rubber bands as if the geoboard werea guitar. Several students, attempting to remove rubber bands from the geoboards,instead sent them flying. Others disappeared under their desks to retrieve lostrubber bands. This wasn't what I had envisioned.
Since then, I've changed how I set the stage for learning with materials. Hereare some ways I've learned to introduce geoboards