You can have the students practice recognizing, predicting and completing patterns with the Cuisenaire rods. The complexity of the patterns depends on the skill and grade level of the class. For example, create a pattern of one red rod, two blues, one green, two yellow and another red for the students that are more capable of recognizing the advanced pattern. You can also leave Cuisenaire rods out of the pattern for the students to complete. For younger students who are first learning patterns, start with two rod colors and gradually increase the number of rods to four.
Basic addition and subtraction can be taught to students using the Cuisenaire rods. Assign each color a number value, such as red is number one and green is number five. The students are given a simple math problem to solve. For example, ask the students to solve 11 plus 15. They count the number of rods to find the answer. If the students are solving the subtraction problem 21 minus 11, they need to lay out a group of rods that equal 21. It's easiest to use 21 rods with the value of "one." The students then remove 11 of the rods and count what is left to discover the answer. For this activity, you need the rod valued "one" more than the other numbers because those just learning addition and subtraction may need to count each individual rod to solve the problem.
Some students need the visual Cuisenaire rods when learning multiplication. For example, arrange three groups of five rods. This is one way to show that three times five equals 15. Have the students count the total number of rods. They can see that there are three groups of five items.
Cuisenaire rods also help students learn various measurements. For example, provide the students with a ruler and various sized rectangular containers. The students must figure out how many rods can fit into the containers based on the length and width of the box. Students can also practice basic measuring by determining the length of the rod in various units.