Cuisenaire rods

Do you know what Cuisenaire rods are ? Do you know how to teach using them?

Cuisenaire rods are 10 different coloured rods which increase in size by 1 each time

1 = white

2 = red

3= light green

4= purple/mauve/ maroon - whatever you students agree on is fine!

5= yellow

6= dark green

7= black

8= brown

9 = blue

10 = orange

Being organised like this they also weigh together so 1 red = 2 white or 2 yellows = 1 orange. This is deliberate so that you can show equivalence of numbers in a number of ways both through visual and weight.

What is the significance of the colours?

Let's look at 2,4,8. Mathematically these numbers are doubles of each other. So the colours chosen are also connected - red, purple, brown.

Looking at 3,6,9 these are also lnked by colour - light green, dark green, blue.

10 and 5 are also linked by colour - orange and yellow.

Finally, 7 is a prime number and is coloured black.

How to Cuisenaire rods?

Cuisenaire rods are used to visually show the relationships betweeen numbers. Recently I was teaching a Year 2 student who was not able to conceptualize that the different rods related to each other. I showed him 2 whites and 1 red side by side but it took a lot of discussion and questioning for him to see that these were the same value - he just kept saying there are 3 (rods), which isn't 'wrong' but that isn't what we are working towards.

Initially, play with the rods. Build pictures and match them up. Weigh them together. Then once they are familiar with them you can use them alongside developing number knowledge.

Want to use these in your teaching?

Check out my Maths Intervention Program Mathtastic. Click the picture to link to www.Mathtastic.com.au