Cute Erasers and Manipulatives for Ten-Frames, Sound Boxes, and More!

I love using cute manipulatives to keep my students engaged in their learning!  I found these mini star erasers on clearance in the summer section of Target for only $.30 for a pack of 60 erasers!  I found the cute red, white, and blue star treat cups at Dollar Tree.  Below you will find some activities I like to use with cute erasers and themed counters. 

Ten-Frames Counters

If you use ten-frames in your classroom, you can change it up throughout the year by using erasers or other cute plastic manipulatives to keep it fun and engaging! 

120 Chart 

You can also use these erasers for covering up a number on the hundreds chart and having students guess the number.

Sound Box Manipulatives

I use sound boxes quite a bit in my classroom.  They really help my students learn how to sound out each part of the word and then we practice putting all of the sounds back together.  Sound boxes are a great way to practice segmenting words into individual sounds.  To keep my students engaged, I use a variety of "themed" or seasonal counters, manipulatives, and erasers to use along with these sound boxes.  

   

I love how this pack is differentiated with 2, 3, 4, or 5 sound boxes to meet the needs of all of my students.  I use these mats a lot during my small group reading intervention block.  Here's how we practice.

First, select a sound box mat and a picture card.  I used the red stars for consonants and the blue stars for vowels.  It is important to change the vowel color so you can see where your students are placing the vowel counter as they sound out the word.  We then "tap out" the sound with our thumb and fingers as we say each sound aloud together.  When students "tap out" the sound, they touch each finger to their thumb as they are saying each sound aloud.  This is where we check to see that the number of counters on the mat match the number of sounds we tapped out on our thumb and fingers.   

Students then push up one star on their mat for each sound they say aloud.

After the students have pushed up each star to check that the word has three sounds, they write the letter(s) that made the sound in each sound box.  Notice below that digraphs and vowel teams make one sound so they go in one box together.  When a long vowel word ends in e, we draw an arrow to the vowel to show that the e makes the vowel long.

My students love these plastic jewels that I bought at Dollar Tree near the vase section.

Last year I found these cute plastic pumpkins at Michaels craft store and the cute Fall themed treat cups at Hobby Lobby.  My students LOVED these pumpkin counters!  To get these cute sound box mats and picture cards for your classroom, click here.  I hope you are able to use some of these ideas with your students in your classroom.  :)