Do It Yourself 10-Base Math Set And Other Pretty Math Projects!

This is only for Mama Bees who have high-aesthetic needs! I didn't save any money doing this, and it certainly wasn't easier, but our 10-Base manipulatives ROCK and I feel pretty using them! Hey...I have to choose between homeschool supplies and art on the walls, so I do what I can to shoe-horn some pretty stuff into the mix!

So, I started with a treasure chest of gems:


Then, I made this a family project and got all of the worker bees around the table to help me. We made enough ten-sticks for all of us:

Then the worker bees and I cranked out stacks and stacks of hundred-squares, these are the most time-consuming to make by the way:



Then, we tackled the 1000-cubes, we only made four of these! The instructions gave us a little hint, start like this:
Make nine of these, then make a full hundred-square to put on the top for the 10th one. The completed cube looks like this:

Just for the record, if you use hot-glue for these, they'll last about 3days. You want to talk about one mad, buzzin' Mama Bee! Don't grab the super-glue after the hot-glued gems all fall off...the super-glue will give ya less than 3days. Wood glue is what you want!

If anyone cares, we're using Noble Knights of Knowledge from Lively Lessons (http://www.livelylessons.com/Nobleknights.html), and here are pictures of some of the other things we made.

A friend of mine found these raw-silk bags and dyed them for us, and we keep 20 smooth counting rocks in each one!

I let the worker bees go to town with my pinking shears and some felt to make erasers for the dry erase boards! A cute little basket of gems!

The worker bees and I had a blast making these flags for the characters in the Noble Knights game. We were inspired by the picture on the NK website, and we made ours from felt and wooden dowels.

We're still working on these pretty homemade flashcards! We use illustration board and sponge water-color onto it. Then, Papa Bee cuts the boards for us with his jigsaw, and then the worker bees write the sums on them!

Papa Bee also made us this great, big Greater/Less manipulative! The worker bees love it!
The worker bees seem to be equallly inspired by their new, pretty math manipulatives and have loved working on them!

Enjoy!

Mama Bee