Play with manipulatives for two weeks prior to instruction. You can purchase manipulatives professionally designed for use in children's math classes from school supply stores, or you may use blocks or other durable objects as manipulatives. Taking time to play with these materials prior to using them in instruction allows students to become familiar with them and to develop a personal understanding of their quantity and shapes. Use this time to teach children that the manipulatives are for touching, grouping and stacking and not for throwing or banging up against other objects. Engage with the children as they are playing and discuss the manipulatives' shapes, colors and quantity. It's helpful to go ahead and introduce these concepts, just do so casually during playtime rather than presenting a planned lesson.
Group the manipulatives according to quantity. This is called the "concrete stage." Students will learn to count out a specific number of manipulatives and will become familiar with looking at them together in groups. Try using manipulatives of differing sizes and have students count out the same number of each. When students have mastered this task, begin working with larger numbers.
Draw pictures to show how the manipulatives look in their groups. This is called the "representational stage." This step allows students to see that they can create an image which depicts the same numerical value as the group of manipulatives. When students have mastered drawing their pictures, have them write the appropriate number above each picture. The number and picture together are an equivalent set.