Manipulatives Strategies: Using

Objects to Connect Concepts

Professional Development
By: Shelbie Wells
 1. Stop and Think!
How/Where do you use manipulatives in your
classroom?
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Focus for Today:

How can we use manipulatives in literacy instruction?
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Questions that will be answered in this

presentation:

✘ What are manipulatives?

✘ How can we use manipulatives in literacy
instruction?
✘ What objects can we use for manipulatives?
✘ How does the use of manipulatives benefit our EL
students?
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“Manipulatives are concrete devices that

students can move and handle to support
their thinking and learning.”
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Benefits of using literacy manipulatives

✘ Connect concepts with experiences

✘ Understanding of a concept
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Materials Needed

✘ Best to be creative here!

- Playdoh
- Mini Erasers
- Stamps
- Word tiles
Example 1: 8

Alphabet Arc
Other Examples 9
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Additional Resources
https://lvp.digitalpromiseglobal.org/content-area/literacy-4-6/strategies/manipulatives-sentence
-combining-literacy-4-6/summary
https://lvp.digitalpromiseglobal.org/content-area/reading-pk-3/strategies/manipulatives-reading-
pk-3/summary
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Thanks!
Any questions or comments?
shelbie.wells@live.longwood.edu
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Resources

Herrell, A. L. & Jordan, M. (2015) 50 Strategies for Teaching English Language Learners (5th

ed). Boston, MA: Pearson.