Base 10 Blocks Best Use

Base 10 blocks are powerful tools. Learn how to use them correctly and math will become child's play. There's no wrong way to play but there can be presentation errors. Learn how to do it right, right from the start.

Base 10 blocks & other math manipulatives have started making inroads in math education, but 35 years later, base 10 blocks are still woefully under utilized, and aren't used for teaching very much more than addition, subtraction and place value. Lately, the term "multisensory math" seems to be en vogue.

Jerry wound up playing with base ten blocks and accidentally discovered you can teach math concepts through play, if you have the right tools, to very young boys and girls; toddlers even. It just becomes a matter of vocabulary.  Five and two is seven not ten.  5 + 2 = 7 ≠ 10 Symbols rule the world, not words. 

Place value with base 10 blocks is almost taken for granted.  A few simple explanations and most of them get it right away. No big deal.  Ideas like the distributive theory of multiplication are visually obvious with base ten blocks too.  Check out the sample lesson on the bottom of that page, shows you how to flow in and out of one lesson into another lesson back to the distributive on to addends & multiplication end up with square numbers which practice multiplication too. Winter training talks about flow. There is an example. Example is the lesson.  One thing leads to another. Here is an entire page of sample lessons.

i spend a lot of time showing you how to use (play with) base 10 manipulatives, this page shows a couple of visual examples of square roots but the entire website shows you how to do much, much more. Please: Poke around. Click links watch vids. Find sample lessons. This method works exceptionally well. To the point where it feels like i might be good to be true. Its true. Read testimonials. 

INTRODUCE ALGEBRA EARLY!

Base 10 Blocks are great for teaching algebra, and because algebra is generic math, it is great for teaching other basic operations too. i use algebra right away even with very young students to start teaching math concepts instead of hammering them with math facts they need to memorize. In module one you'll see that right after games and activities is algebra.

This six year old doesn't think it's hard or amazing.  Just fun to draw. i encourage much simpler lines and boxes but if they want to get creative on their own time, it is welcomed. But during a tutoring session this would take too long. They were given polynomials to factor. They are building puzzles which is way more fun than algebra. 

x² + 10x + 16 = (x + 8)(x + 2)

x² + 10x + 21 = (x + 7)(x + 3)

They get addends for ten again,  2 + 8 and 7 + 3,  and multiplication facts again (8)(2) = 16 and (7)(3) = 21.  They see the distributive theory. They also get division because clearly if one side of the rectangle is 8 and the whole thing is 16 the other side is two. HAS to be. Therefore if the whole thing is 16 and one side is two the other side MUST be 8.

With 21 if one side is seven the other side is three, and if the whole thing is 21 and one side is three then the other side is seven.  Look a all those math facts just from playing with polynomials purposefully. 

Drawing and adding symbols increasing understanding.  Relating the symbols to the blocks is done with drawings. 

Again, i would prefer simple line drawings but if they are having fun making art out of their "homework", let them have fun. 

The best part about base 10 blocks is they show any student what the symbols mean...they can literally get their hands on a concept and this makes it much easier for them to wrap their minds around the mathematics. 

You always start in the concrete, that is: the base 10 blocks when teaching a subject like math to little kids. Using math terms like "lowest common denominator" just serve to confuse the situation when teaching fractions to little kids who may make up a meaning for that term in their minds that has precious little to do with making fractions the same before we count them. (My fractions page is a bit of an embarrassment at the moment.)

Remember: no concept is beyond the grasp of a child if it is presented at the child's level.

"Same" is and easy concept to grasp and to show using manipulatives while "lowest common denominator" is not as easy for a 5 or 6 year old to understand...not that they can't and you want to increase their understanding of this concept and the name for it as time passes. Might not be best to start with it. Maybe after a few lessons of making same THEN the name for making the denominators alike can be introduced. 

Square root becomes easy and visually obvious. The symbol means count one side of the square. Wash it down with some vitamin c and minerals.

Watch Base 10 Block Videos.

Part of understanding base 10 blocks and how to use manipulatives is understanding where they came from and how they were developed.

Check out these pages, especially if you are new to the concept of using manipulatives for teaching mathematics. Crewton Ramone's No Mystery Theatre should be informative and entertaining for you. Best of all the videos are free. i have over 1,000 videos on YouTube.  

Base Ten Block Math Videos
CREWTON RAMONE'S NO MYSTERY THEATRE.

Same with square roots and radicals...making a square and counting one side is easy to understand and see when you have base 10 blocks...not so easy when all you get is symbols.

Taking the next step from making squares to finding square roots, to expressing numbers as radicals is not only easy but natural and greatly simplified with manipulatives. These blocks make math concepts child's play.

"Yes, but can I do it?"

Absolutely you can. The question often arises with home schoolers, especially home school moms, "how do I teach my kid algebra when I didn't understand it myself and still don't get it?" Fair question.

The answer at Crewton Ramone's House Of Math is: you learn it right along with them and start them early. i teach you and then you teach them. GO get M0AR training. i teach you so well you can teach it to your child. Some people have my videos on while they are homeschooling and we play together even though i'm not there. And unlike in real, life you can always hit pause and shut me up. And rewind if i went too fast, or you missed it because you got distracted with your own blocks and got lost in thought because you understood something for the first time and you were wondering how it could be this easy and why didn't they just show you this in the first place 20 years ago when you were hating math in high school.

Often the child will help teach you...lol. You have a lot more experience with math than your 5 year old, you will pick it up quickly BUT often the little ones "get it" faster than their parents because they are "unburdened by what has been" and will explain it to you in child-like terms even you understand. Put your child in a math rich environment and they will learn math. Here is a four year old playing math.

In many cases my one hour session is the "master class" and then the moms teach them and play math with them during the week. Sometimes the mom's or dad's math anxiety kicks in, and they realize they might transfer some of that "bad math vibe" to their own daughters or sons. 

Meantime their six year old is killing it, making puzzles into rectangles and counting the sides.

If your child is in high school, it doesn't matter you can still learn together using the videos and webpages and blog i have created.  Check out all the testimonials. Spend some time on the Users Page. This isn't some new fly-by-night experimental system. You get ten years of experience chronicled on my blog.

Watch this video, I get students like this all the time.  If you start them early you can avoid a lifetime of problems. This child is 16. If you start with your children early they will never encounter these kinds of Issues with mathematics.  I remind you that these people paid $50.00 for this lesson.  You don't see the student but you can certainly hear that he was "blown away."

Introductory tutoring lesson:

---

Use the blocks you have.

When it comes right down to it, it doesn't matter what blocks you use only that you use them well. Some blocks or more efficient than others.

Sets of three is great practice for multiplication and addition depending on skill level. Making walls or rectangles with three blocks each...and then realizing they could be made with 3s is a important concept. The difference between three sixes and six threes is the knowing which is the multiplicand and which is the multiplyer. 

1 x 3, 2 x 3, 3 x 3, 4 x 3 etc...it should be length times width so each should get longer and be three up, 1 x 3, 3 x 2, 3 x 3, 4 x 3 think about is as dimension, 5 across 3 up as opposed to 3 fives which is what is pictured, but they wouldn't fit in the picture and the boys were playing and measuring and we talked about it, and ow it mattered which way we turned the rectangle, which base 10 blocks we were talking about six 3s or three 6s...?

How about we count six at a time and make a tower out of it?

Here is a tower made of six blocks each. So she starts with six 10s, six 9s,  etc. But because they are built in pairs we can also get to count by 18s, 16s, 14s, 12s etc...well the first three anyway. 20 x 20 matrix one bite at a time...

Here is a mom who claims she is "just a mom" with a high school education doing a very fine job teaching her kids math using somewhat inferior and cheaper base ten blocks called Cuisenaire Rods. I made a few comments on her videos, and will make more as time permits. Her idea is that you can use what you have to teach math and I think part of the reason she makes her vids is to show you that you CAN teach your kids math (I wholeheartedly agree)...so stop making excuses and get started. If you think you can't afford Mortensen Math blocks and you already have Cuisenaire Rods then use those. Eventually you will figure out you can't afford NOT to use Mortensen Math blocks. But I'm biased.

Here is another mom, hands on.

Sounds great, but what do I do?

This was always the gripe with people in the 90's when all we had was a few VHS tapes: they needed more training and didn't know what to do and didn't know how to get started. The point of this endeavor is to remove your excuses and get you teaching your kids math. JUST GET STARTED.

Where? Anywhere. What do you do first? Whatever you want...just as long as they can count to nine recognize a rectangle and tell if something is same or different. If they can't count to nine I have pages for that too...base 10 blocks make it easy and fun. Did I mention when you use base ten blocks you automatically add an element of fun into the lesson? You do.

If that isn't satisfactory for you, I have rearranged this website into modules.  The modules require passwords. Please feel free to deviate from the order I present them in.

Start with the one hour introductions, the EZ PZ Overview, or head over to my NO MYSTERY THEATRE and watch some videos. If you want training there is now a basic track to run on click on M0AR Trainings and get started using you base ten blocks right. 

FREE is a good deal. 

If you are looking for base 10 blocks you can get them on eBay or online marketplaces especially homeschool resources in charter schools. i no longer work with Mortco to procure materials for you. 

With me you get digital products: passports, passwords which will transport you to pages that show you how to use the blocks to master 45 addends and 400 multiplication facts by playing and engaging in fun activities like algebra. i reveal secrets they never taught you in school. Meantime, take advantage of all the free stuff first.  Free PDFs, pages designed to give you examples and spark your imagination.

Get Module One which gains you access to MANY hours of vids and lots of PDF's to help you make the best use of your blocks. Later you can take the cost of Module One off the cost of any other password. There are now hundreds of hours of videos and reading for you to go through that are ABSOLUTELY FREE. Not free if you give your email and phone number, not free with a purchase but just plain FREE. No obligation. Hundreds of examples of video lessons with students--all kinds of students,  video lessons for parents, video lessons with parents. Don't get overwhelmed. Math is a big subject. My website barely covers any of it...but it does give you a solid K-12 curricula which you can condense into about three years. Go through this website, the GED will be a snap. 

Besides video there are pdfs. Many PDFS made specifically for base ten blocks. When you go through a lot of the free THEN you might want to get a passport. There is even more stuff behind the pay walls. This website is designed to give you YEARS of content for your homeschool. You aren't going to get through it in a weekend or a summer. You can also use it to help you explain specific topics.  Type Crewton Ramone Trig see what comes back...Crewton Ramone Distributive Theory...etc.

Here is a book i wrote that introduces several concepts to young children you can down load it with your password. Stuff gets added to the password protected pages all the time and i am told it takes a few Months to get through it all if you spend a lot of time at it. Binge watching is not recommended. A little bit each week. This is the recommended way and i highly recommend you have your blocks out and play along as you watch videos. Just watching won't cut it: you need to be hands on. Don't be a drag: participate. 

I can't stress this enough. (Even though I bolded it and put it in red.) Over the years and through my travels I found that having your hands on the base 10 blocks made all the difference between a crowd that 100% got it from grandma to the kids and a crowd that didn't. If they got it i made sales if they didn't "get it" i didn't make sales. So this understanding was purely pragmatic.

If you think that you can learn math without DOING math: you're going to have a very bad time (VBT). Just watching the vids isn't enough.

The drawing depicts the blocks, the drawing is a depiction of the blocks, the symbols are a description of the blocks and the drawing. Note the lovely blend of symbols and images/drawing. 28 in the corner instead of 28 dots. Even drawing them takes too long. This problem is tedious to build if you only have flats, rods and units. Putting 28 units or even 20 in the corner takes too long. The mind wants to work fast.  Faster still would be a yellow 4x block and a beige 7x block, but singles are better for the wee ones to start.  

Further, like the three purple sixes pictured by themselves (arranged for division) above all we have is four sevens with some algebra along for the ride. So instead of just 4x7, we get addends for 11, seven and four, we get to build a fun puzzle or as adults insist on calling it, factor a polynomial, and count it.  i gave him the code,  x² + 11x + 28, he had to get out the blocks, (be the banker), figure out how to get 28 to fit in the corner, (be the builder), draw a picture of it, (be the drawer), and record it with symbols, (be the recorder). It's more fun when his brothers come, because more gets done faster. That can be all one child or four of them or two...one with the blocks is fun, four is just M0AR FUN.  Get M0AR Training where i explain all of this and more.

Here is my Youtube channel. Subscribe. You will be notified when I put new Public videos up.  i make videos on various topics using base ten blocks. 

Here are a few FREE PDFs you:

Some old articles about Mortensen Math.

Scope and Sequence of the Books.

Judy Townsend on "why" Mortensen Math

Progress Charts For Mortensen Math Books

Skip Count Underlays

Practice Polynomials For Addends and Multiplication

Five Basic Concepts.

Principles

i show you how to have fun doing it. You play with a six year old, you don't sit them or 7, 8, 9 year olds down at desks for hours at a time. Are you crazy?

Go home from Base Ten Blocks Best Use. 

Games And Activities
PDFs & More
M0AR Training 
Algebra Course

Lifetime Passwords are just that...you get a pass for a lifetime. Pay once and you are good, forever. Come back as often as you like. Watch vids, download PDFs. You get all my passwords to get through all my pay walls all for one low price...currently 4 passwords open almost all of my pages.. When you purchase the LIFETIME PASSPORT you get them all for one low price: $999.00...if you want the Algebra course it is $600.00 by itself but only $250.00 with a lifetime Passport.  Teacher training is $400.00 but you can break it up into 12 easy installments of 37.00 Or get all four passwords for a few dollars more but 24 months. 

Or you can purchase individual modules, & get a lifetime of access. Hit the Contact Us tab for the PayPal link or use the handy buttons provided. 

***Unlimited Lifetime Access:


M0AR Training
M0AR Training $100.00    
You are guided through two--one hour Introductions, one for "students" and one for "teachers", The Crash Course, Hurricane and Winter training.  You can take the cost of is training off any other password or the passport.

Passport 4 Passwords + AC = All four passwords plus the Algebra Course.  Basically all of my passwords for a one time fee of $1249.00.  You will also get M0AR Training: the crash course and Hurricane Training + Winter Training and all of my books.

Passport 4 Passwords $999.00 = All four passwords. You will also get the crash course and Hurricane Training and all of my books. But no Algebra Course. You can always buy it separately for $250.00 if you buy all four passwords. 

MOD 1: Series A+ Easy PZ + PDFs 
PDF Only (MOD I) $100.00 = Module One. PDFs and Books and more PDFs. You get the series A manuals, my books and the EZ PZ Overview. You will also get the Crash Course and Hurricane Training. This module has all ten Series A Manuals online plus my books and workbooks, as well as worksheets for learning how to write numbers, pdfs explaining the method and make it EZ PZ, pdfs for practicing concepts.  A plethora of PDFs all in on place. Most of them have explanatory videos to go along with them so you get best use out of them.  It will take you quite a while to download and print it all.  This has an entry page. 

MOD 2: Parent Teacher Training + M0AR Training 
Training (MOD II) $400.00 = Module Two. Training you won't get anywhere else. You will also get the Crash Course, Hurricane Training, and Winter Training, plus all of my books. Module one and two are a great combination. You will learn how to teach math using base ten blocks whether you are planning to homeschool or a side hustle, this Module will put you well ahead of any competition. Best of all the videos are fun...they may not be exactly entertaining, but they certainly are engaging. i get great results so you will get great results because i teach you how and the theory behind it, in other words how and WHY.  This page has an entry page. 

MOD 3 : Sitewide + PDFs 
SiteWide (MOD III) $250.00 = Module Three is the most bang for your buck. It isn't so much a module with an entry page as a collection of pages. When in doubt try the Mod III password. Coupled with Module One, you basically get my website from years ago before i added all the parent/teacher training and the so called "advanced" pages.  Spend time on these pages and training will be a breeze. Module Three puts theory into practice. Example IS the lesson. Module Two gives you theory and some practice, this module is all theory IN practice right in front of your eyes, you see and hear the children learning in real time. You can hear the ah-ha moments...the lessons are unrehearsed with real students. They are fun because learning is fun and watching others learn is fun too. This is in and of itself is priceless training. 

MOD 4: "Advanced Pages" + SSDSS Facebook Math Group 
"Advanced" (Module IV) $250.00 = i say "advanced" because Module Four is higher level math, but really you are still just creatively applying the five basic concepts. It has however come to my attention that other curriculums are not using the blocks to teach upper level algebra, and resort to symbols only in their books. i put the pictures back in and show you what the symbols mean and what the problems look like. This greatly enhances speed and efficiency of learning as well as making abstract concepts accessible to kinesthetic learners who can build the problems from the drawings. Visual learners love this method because they can see the symbols and operations, which makes it fun. 

i have lots of explanatory videos to make and add. i also have several entry or landing pages to build. When the dust settles it should be much easier to navigate, to get started, & to know what to do next.

Algebra Course 
$600.00.  $250.00 with $999.00 PassPort.
Prerequisites: The ability to count to nine. Identify if something is same or different or not. Be able to identify a rectangle or square.

i use base ten blocks to teach ALL topics. i don' resort to symbol only lessons until AFTER we have played with blocks. Get your blocks paper and pencil and play along, my success rate with people who have failed algebra or struggled in college is 100%. If you require more explanation or assistance email me, this password comes with tech support, we will set up 1 hour video chat. i usually clear up any confusion in under 15 minutes.

Course covers:

Pre Algebra:
Integers
Number line

Algebra:
Factoring polynomials. 
Completing the square.
Square numbers. 
Radicals. 
Graphing y = mx+b
Graphing polynomials.
Vertex Form.
Basic Trig Functions.
Problem solving.
System of equations.
Derivation Of The Quadratic Equation. 
+ more. 

Lessons last about 1 hour to 90 minutes (max) each.  These are recordings of actual tutoring sessions that cost the parent $250.00 per 5 lessons or over $1500.00 (not all the lessons got recorded and put here). You can watch them for $25 per lesson (half off) or get the whole course for a one time payment of $600.00 Here is more than 30 hours of Algebra instruction using base ten blocks you won't get anywhere else. 

As it turns out people who i thought were using base ten blocks to teach algebra AREN'T. 
https://www.crewtonramoneshouseofmath.com/Algebra-with-base-10-blocks.html

Blog Post: Play Math For Fun & Profit 
Base 10 Blocks

Bonus Sample Lesson.

Most of the videos on the password protected pages are full motion videos not screencasts like this one.