Tactile learners, or those who learn by touch, are especially helped by this type of enrichment activity. Manipulatives can include blocks for sorting or counting, tangrams for shape transformations, or snap cubes for fractions. One idea for enrichment with manipulatives is to give the students snap cubes, which are little blocks that snap together at either end. Give them cards with fractions on them and allow them to represent the fraction using two or more colors of snap cubes. For younger children, you can make toys into manipulatives. A train set can teach counting by helping the student count the cars you attach to your train; toy cars can be sorted by color, style or size.
Games can be used during math enrichment to engage students. Divide your class into teams and give each team a whiteboard and marker. Ask questions and award points to the teams that answer correctly. Have a small treat for the winners. Another idea is to have students make their own games. Have students create a board game using posterboard for the game and index cards for the questions. They can use cutouts, little figurines, or any other item they would like to move through the game. Have students play their classmates games. As math topics change, games can be updated simply by changing the questions on the index cards.
Getting entire families, including parents, involved in math enrichment keeps kids excited about math and parents up to date on what is being studied. Parent enrichment activities can be sent home for homework. When studying money, the enrichment activity can be to go to the grocery store and add up what is being bought. Percentages can be taught while looking at sale items at stores. This is also a way to make math more relevant and to show children why math is important in everyday life.
Brain teasers can be used as math enrichment. It allows the student to think beyond just a math question. Choose a brain teaser that corresponds to the topic that is currently being taught to reinforce concepts. Games such as Sudoku are also useful in keeping logic skills reinforced as well as problem-solving skills.