Manipulatives can help students of all grade levels learn mathematical concepts. For younger students, use colored paper or cardboard to make play coins. Students can use them for practicing their counting and for learning addition and subtraction. Use thick paper and cut out a variety of shapes to teach students geometry. Have students move them around on the floor to make larger designs. For older students, cut out a circle of cardboard and divide it into fractions. Cut out "slices" of one-third, one-quarter and one-eighth. Label the slices and let students manipulate them to learn fractions.
Visual sensory manipulatives can be used to teach science. For younger students, there are many possibilities out there. If you are teaching students about water, fill a small bucket with water and let students run their hands through it to understand the liquid state. If you are teaching about animals, bring in some fur and a feather to let students feel the differences between the two textures. For older students, use foam balls and wooden sticks to make a model of a molecule that helps students see how atoms are positioned relative to each other.
Visual sensory manipulatives are an effective way to teach students language and reading. Make the letters of the alphabet out of clay. Have young students play with them and feel them to get a sense of how letters are constructed and written. Manipulatives can also work for writing exercises. Bring in a series of different objects from home. They can be anything at all, including toys, utensils, tools and gadgets. Have students select an object, meditate on it and write a story or descriptive essay about it.
Manipulatives work well with geography lessons because the subject contains a lot of visual information. Cut out the shapes of U.S. states or countries of the world as shown on a map. Let students handle them and try to reproduce them on paper. Alternatively, get students to help you build miniature models of different biospheres on the planet using modelling clay and paper.