Virtual Manipulatives - Toy Theater Applications

Virtual Manipulatives can be really powerful for students. A few of the major benefits include the ability for students to be precise, save class time and space, and be able to share ideas efficiently . Virtual Manipulatives also eliminate the mess, noise and storage issues of physical manipulatives. One note here, I'm not against physical manipulatives, especially for younger students. There is definitely a need for students to get their hands on items they can move and touch when correlating models with math processes. As the teacher, you have to decide what will be best for your students and lesson outcome.

I'll be sharing a few sites my team and I have found that work really well for students. Our criteria for these are that they be html based, no java, and are easy for students to use and navigate. Many of these manipulatives can be used for several problem types and often can make more visual sense than our traditional physical math tools.

Today's site is Toy Theater. This site contains many great virtual manipulatives and quite a menu of math practice games. They also have resources for most other content areas, but our focus here is on math. Take a look at the two video's below for a quick introduction to what's available. Then go check out the site yourself. Come back to the comments and let us know what you liked or hesitated on as you explored the site.