Introducing Color Tiles with 4 Open-Ended Questions
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This post is part of a series all about introducing math manipulatives…and it’s time for one of my all-time favorites: color tiles!
We use colors tiles a LOT, for many concepts throughout the year. I have a post sharing ideas for using color tiles in math here if you’d like to read more:
How to Use Color Tiles in Math: 20 Easy Photo Ideas
Introducing Color Tiles
When it’s time to introduce color tiles for the year, I like to use a series of open-ended questions to lead a guided exploration.
I’m sharing all the questions here, as well as a free resource to help at the end of this post.
What do you notice?
I think this is a question I ask in my sleep…because I ask it EVERY day with all my math students!
It’s such a powerful question that really gets students thinking (and a great way to support productive struggle when students are working on challenging concepts).
When students first explore color tiles, they may notice things such as:
They are all the same size.
They have different colors.
They are squares.
This all may sound super simple, but these observations are important to note as students learn how they can use color tiles.
Do color tiles you of other manipulatives you’ve used before?
This is another question I ask in all explorations of math manipulatives. I love to see students to make connections between the learning tools…and to find the major differences in each.
Because this will truly help them understand how they can be used.
Students may note that color tiles are similar to counters:
This is a great connection to make, as color tiles can be used to count as well…but in more complex ways as students progress through the standards.
If students have used fraction bars before, they may notice some similarities between both manipulatives.
Color tiles can be lined up to form rectangles of different sizes:
This is another helpful connection to make with students, as color tiles can be used for many fraction concepts (such as building fractions on a number line in the upper grades):
What can you create/build with color tiles?
Ah the dreaded question.
In just seconds, students may start madly stacking tiles to build tall towers that quickly fall all over the floor.
We want to keep this exploration focused, so I remind my students that we are working to build math models and visuals.
Students may create arrays and area models, which is excellent for future work with color tiles!
They may build shapes like these rectangles, which is amazing! This early model is a great precursor to working with area and perimeter later on:
(where they will learn the model must be filled with no gaps or overlaps, of course!)
You might even have students who build creative shapes, such as this dog (or at least, that’s what I was going for!):
Which is an awesome foundation for future work with more complex concepts:
After we’ve explored a bit, I like to share this key information about color tiles with my students:
“I can tell you something else about these tiles…they each measure one inch”
Which may lead to students measuring with the tiles (another great use!):
How can we use these as a learning tool?
This is the question I love wrapping up with, once we’ve explored to our hearts’ content (or to your limit of patience!).
I look for my students to realize (or guide if needed!) that these tiles can be used for: adding, multiplying, building models, measuring, fractions, and more.
Now the door is opened for students to use color tiles for so many concepts, all year long!
A Free Resource to Introduce Color Tiles
Once we’ve explored with the four guiding questions, I like to give another open-ended task and get students working with the tiles in a way that we will be using them during the year.
(this slide is completely editable in case you’d like to change it up for what you are working on!)
This is part of the free resource I mentioned earlier!
These slides feature the questions shared above, along with presenter notes to help guide your students as they explore color tiles:
Grab your copy of Introducing Math Manipulatives below (along with other math freebies!):
Building with Color Tiles
Color tiles are definitely one of the math manipulatives I introduce early on in the year, as we use them for so many concepts.
I love to incorporate color tiles with the math mats we use each day as well. These are open-ended models designed to be built on.
They are an excellent support for students who are stuck on how to tackle a problem, as well as encouraging all students to show their math thinking in different ways:
Introducing More Math Manipulatives
I hope these ideas are of help as you begin to explore color tiles with your class!
This article is part of a larger series of introducing math manipulatives. Be sure to check out the posts for each:
Kristen Beakey
I’m an elementary math teacher with a passion for helping teachers build student confidence with scaffolded math learning, while saving time with practical digital tools.
Ladybug’s Teacher Files has been a work of love since 2010. Filled with hands-on math ideas and visual tech tutorials…I strive to save you time in all aspects of your teaching!
