Math Tower Construction

thingiverse

Math Tower is an engaging game for preschool, Kindergarten, and 1st Grade students to master addition through hands-on learning. Educators or students choose a value to work with and adjust the slider ends to mark the width of the tower being built. This is the value they will break down into pairs of. Students use standard place value sticks and cubes to insert them into the tower, building up vertically. When the width is filled, they have found partners of the chosen value. For example, if the value is 9, a child might find that: 5 + 4 = 9, 6 + 3 = 9, 4 + 3 + 2 = 9, 7 + 2 = 9, or 8 + 1 = 9. I designed the Math Tower to hold place value cubes and sticks as students build upward. The sliders help mark the width of the tower being created. The base and sticks are designed to support kinesthetic learning by providing a tangible way for students to create partners of values. Educators can use dual extruders or pause the print job to add a second color to the numbers on printed value sticks. When printing, educators will need to pause for a filament change when it reaches the outside of the cubes. Project: Math Tower Construction Overview & Background This project offers educators a fun way to engage students while using place value cubes and sticks in a new format. Objectives: * Students learn kinesthetically how to create pairs of values. * Students develop problem-solving skills through hands-on learning. Audiences: * Math Tower Construction is primarily aimed at 1st Grade level by Common Core State Standards. * Preschool students who are advanced mathematically will find fun challenges in building the tower. * Additional wider towers could be created for 2nd Grade. Subjects: * Math Tower Construction focuses on mathematics practice. Skills Learned (Standards): * Count to answer "how many?" questions about as many as 20 things arranged in a line, a rectangular array, or a circle, or as many as 10 things in a scattered configuration; given a number from 1-20, count out that many objects. * Understand addition as putting together and adding to, and understand subtraction as taking apart and taking from. * Represent addition and subtraction with objects, fingers, mental images, drawings, sounds (e.g., claps), acting out situations, verbal explanations, expressions, or equations. Lesson/Activity: Duration: Depending on how many values educators want students to decompose or find partners for, this activity could be anywhere from 1-60 minutes. Preparation: * Educators print the Math Tower Construction base, sliders, cover (optional), and value sticks. * They must choose between two types of value sticks: plain value sticks with no numerals printed on them, which fit perfectly in between the Math Tower Construction base sticks, or printed value sticks with numbers printed on the outside to tell the value of that particular stick. References: Math Tower Construction is simple enough that educators require no additional research. It just adds to enhance math curriculum in a fun kinesthetic method. Rubric & Assessment: Students who have successfully found partners of their value will have constructed a tower layer after layer. Handouts & Assets: Each educator can pair the Math Tower Construction set with their current math curriculum.