Rugged plastic inclined board upon which students can arrange the Blocks according to place (hundreds, tens, ones). It was designed to help students organize Blocks to see the connection between digits and the base ten representation of number. An ejection feature allows no more than nine Blocks in each place. The Counter also has a whiteboard dry erase writing surface and pen and dials for displaying digits. Large enough to hold 999 Blocks, the Demo Counter is meant to be used for teacher demonstration, in student centers and for small group and one-on-one instruction. The Counter visually demonstrates the pattern of the base ten count and addition and subtraction with and without regrouping. When counting or adding, the Blocks are loaded to the appropriate column (hundreds, tens or ones). The holders latch on to hold 0-9 of the respective size Blocks; when a tenth Block is inserted, the holder "ejects" and slides down, signaling that the ten Blocks are now one Block of the next larger place and must be moved to the next column and that column now represents zero. When subtracting, Blocks are removed from the counter. If there are not enough Blocks in a place to take away from, students instinctively open a Block from the next larger column to "borrow" from. Students can choose to work left to right or right to left and decide which is more efficient. The combination of accurate visual representation of the algorithms and self-discovery guarantee understanding. |