The Equation Neighborhood: Math Manipulatives

While cuteness isn't necessarily important to your math manipulatives, it does make school a little more fun!

We like to picture each order of operations as a house in a neighborhood. When you're reading word problem, there are key words that will tell you which order of operation to use. Some words are obvious like "add" or "subtract". Some words might be more subtle like "and" or ".

While reading a word problem one beneficial thing to do with your student is to circle the numbers in the word problem and underlining key words in the problem.

Example:

Ariel was playing basketball. 1 of her shots went in the hoop. 2 of her shots did not go in the hoop. How many shots were there in total?

After finding the key word, it may help to see which "house" that word lives in. This will tell your student how to solve the word problem.

For this set, we've included word problem key words that you can cut out and sort into the different houses. One activity to do is place the different houses on different walls in your classroom or the school room. Have your student take each key word and tape it on the wall next to the correct house.

We hope your student loves the Equation Neighborhood and they bring joy to your home or classroom.