Workshop Wednesday: Math Manipulatives

I'm linking up with Ideas by Jivey for another addition of Workshop Wednesday, but I have no pictures to share.  :sad face:

This week's topic is: Math Manipulatives.  I just bought a big box of Popsicle sticks for our next math topic, classifying plane figures.  In this topic, we will be working with different polygons to understand that all of the properties of a category also belong to all members of the subcategories and classifying polygons.  While I was perusing my teacher's guide, I noticed the lessons assume the students already know a lot about polygons and angles, but I'm not confident that is the case.  We have spent most of the year working on decimals, fractions and volume, so it has been a long time since the students have worked with polygons.

I didn't think reviewing basic shapes would be very fun so I planned a quick activity to keep them engaged while they review.  Grab it HERE (fixed!)

I used this activity as finished early work for my fast finishers today, but we will work again tomorrow to review the basics of geometry.  I'm also planning to use Popsicles to teach the students how to classify angles!

How do you use manipulatives in your classroom? Be sure to link up with Jivey!