Dominoes, Cards, and Dice...Oh My!

Dominoes, playing cards, and dice are some of the most fundamental math manipulatives a teacher can have on hand.  They can be used for many different content strands throughout all grade levels.  However, storing these great manipulatives in a ready to use container can be overwhelming to some people. There's no need to fear, OCD girl is here to show you some of my budget friendly storage solutions for these manipulatives.  

If you read my previous blog, "Once Upon a Time," you would have seen pictures of my corner of paradise...aka my workspace.  Though it may be small, it is expertly organized to house as many manipulatives and reading products as possible.  Right beside my kidney shape table, I have two small black bookcases in front of my math bulletin.  I use the top of these bookcases to house some of my math manipulatives in some fabulous large rectangular Dollar Tree baskets.  

Bookcases with baskets of math manipulatives on the top

Four of these five baskets house the biggest part of my dominoes, cards, and dice manipulatives.  Let's first look at dominoes.

Overview of dominoes basket

Within the basket I have some sets of double six dominoes that I won during a drawing at a teacher's workday this summer, some large dominoes that I combined to make storage easier, and some mini-dominoes that I purchased at the Dollar Tree.  With the larger dominoes, I just added them into a Glade-like container that can found at your local grocery store or at a dollar store.  

One of my favorite items to purchase at the Dollar Tree are mini-dominoes.  In fact, I have a bad habit of stocking up anytime they have some back on the shelves, even though I have several containers full.  The mini-dominoes come in a cardboard box that is easily damaged when you try to open the dominoes for the first time.  A great budget friendly storage solution for these items can be found a few aisles over in Dollar Tree in the plastic storage container section.  I use the snack containers with flip-top lid.  You can find these throughout the year, though finding some without an image on the top can be tricky at times.  The lid has a tight snap to it allowing the person to easily and secularly carry the mini-dominoes wherever necessary and then flip up the lid for easy access to the dominoes.  




 
Playing cards are another great math manipulative that can be purchased cheaply at the Dollar Tree.  In fact, if you play your cards right, you can find double packs of cards in the toy section which means you are only paying $0.50 per a pack.  However, when you purchase the double pack, the cards come in a cardboard box that will easily rip when you open it.  Also, each pack of cards are just wrapped in some cellophane.  So to keep these cards together I use another storage container from the Dollar Tree.

 These double latch snack/soap containers hold a pack of cards easily and keep them secularly locked into the box, so you won't have to worry about playing 52 card pick-up.  Dollar Tree only has these containers available at certain times of the year.  I know you can definitely find them right before school each year.  The containers come two in a pack, and sometimes even three in a pack for $1.





Dice are another great item that can be purchased at the Dollar Tree to be used during your math instruction.  I have found packs of 5 dice or even sometimes packs of 10 dice in the toy section.  If you have spent anytime in a classroom with students using dice, you know they can some how end up across the room or way up in the air.  I wanted a budget friendly storage solution that would keep the dice in ready-to-use containers for math instruction that students could shake to roll the dice.  At first, I found a four pack of storage containers at my local grocery store that ranged in price from $1 to $1.99 a pack.  Those are the containers with the colored lids in the pictures below.  They had a nice snap and latch making if very difficult for the dice to "fall out" of the container without someone first removing the lid.  While walking around my local Dollar Tree one day, I came across the 10 count Sure Fresh mini Start Containers with lids.  While the lids on these containers do not fit as snug as the containers I had found at the grocery store, the Sure Fresh containers work just as well and are a better value with it costing only $0.10 a container.  Lately, my local Dollar Trees have been out of this product, however you can usually find them year around.  They come in both rectangular and circle shaped containers.



 





No matter what containers you use, I want to encourage you to make sure your math toolkit contains these manipulatives.  They are so easy, fun, cheap, and versatile to use.