The Number Balance activity kit is perfect for teaching kindergarten and primary mathematics. This kit makes math easy, interactive, and hands-on for students. It helps them visualize number relationships and operations such as addition, subtraction, and comparisons by allowing students to manipulate and place weights on the t-scale. By participating and manipulating the weights students can see whether what they have done has balanced or tipped the scale. An example activity would involve having students hang weights from any two numbers on the left side of the balance and then having them place a weight on the other side of the scale where they think the sum of the other two weights is.
The kit contains one large (oversize) t-scale and 20 weights for students to manipulate and place. It can be used as a demonstration tool, as a tool for free exploration, or even for group work. By making mathematics concepts, like addition, subtraction, and comparisons, visual and hands-on for students, the Number Balance activity kit is a great tool for teachers to use in order to engage younger students with math.
The Number Balance activity kit is currently on display on the Ground Floor of the OISE Library on the coffee table near the “New Arrivals” shelf. For more information on this activity kit, and many others available in the OISE Library’s Curriculum Resources Collection, please visit the OISE Library K-12 Manipulatives Database.
