Home and school Montessorians are always looking for
quality hands-on materials. It gives me great pleasure to highly
recommend Kaidy Educational Resources. I examined several of the
companyıs products and was elated with what I experienced.
Students will actually visualize fractions while working with the BarCulator.
Abstract concepts become concrete as the student demonstrates his
understanding of fractions. Maria Montessori often used color
coding to help students solidfy new concepts introduced. The
color coding of the BarCulator halves, thirds, fourths, sixths, eighths,
twelfths and twenty-fourths is thus very consistent with the Montessori
method. By working with this maniuplative the student is first
introduced to comparing fractions.
The BarCulator is a
perfect adjunct exercise for students who have been introduced to the
Montessori fractional skittles and math fractional insets apparatus. The
BarCulator offers a visually stimulating
and hands-on approach that many Montessorians will appreciate.
The Montessori directress can present the fractions using the three
period lesson. A control card can be easily constructed so that the
student can check his own work. Students can then learn addition
and subtraction of fractions by using this manipulative. Because
the fraction pieces are small, the BarCulator is recommended for those
eight years and older.
The PieCulator
also utilizes color coding and further aids the young student with
visualization of fractions and allows him to easily make comparions. I recommend that the teacher purchase the book Fraction
Fun with the BarCulator and PieCulator to accompany the
BarCulator and PieCulator maniuplatives. This book is very
well presented and includes many additional activities for helping
students see necessary relationships between equivalent fractions or
finding the common denominator to name a
few.
The Witzzle Pro is a marvelous
exercise that can be done in a home or school setting. The student can
work alone at his own pace. This game like exercise helps students
reinforce basic math skills and can be adapted to give those who are
learning pre-algebra and algebra much needed individual practice.
The game contains a set of three equal freqency number cubes and 40
beautifully designed playing cards. Each card consists of nine
numbers that are set up in a tic tac toe fashion on the card. Like
other Kaidy Educational products, the Witzzle Pro instructions are well written.
The student progresses from that of a beginning player to an experienced
and then advanced player. Youıll want to visit the website for
complete information about this product, the BarCulator, PieCulator and
all other fine Kaidy Educational Resources. |