Math Manipulatives Storage: 2 Ideas to Save Time Every Day

When I was a classroom teacher, figuring out math manipulatives storage always felt a bit daunting. And in complete honesty, the same was true when I started math coaching!

The goal is to always have math manipulatives right at our students’ fingertips.

This is easily one of the most important ways to build a concrete understanding of new math concepts and support productive struggle during challenging work.

And there’s no better way to help students when they are stuck in math!

For this reason, organization is key when it comes to math manipulatives storage.

I’ve worked to refine my systems for storing math manipulatives over the years (making plenty of mistakes along the way!) and have found some things that work really well for my students.

Even better? Two of these storage ideas save so much time, every day!

Math Manipulatives Storage with Photo Cases

One of my favorite containers for math manipulatives storage is a photo case.

These cases definitely stand the test of time. I still have my very first set from over ten years ago when I was a classroom teacher!

Photo cases are ideal for organizing smaller tools including:

• color tiles
• place value disks
• base ten blocks (rods and units)

And speaking of color tiles, these are the the PERFECT container to store them. These little containers make it so easy for students to keep track of the color tiles.

My favorite size is the 4″ x 6″ photo cases because students can layer in the color tiles with ease, which means they can keep track of their tiles without needing to count them:

My upper-elementary students know to create two layers of tiles for 48 tiles in all (a great number for building factor pairs and determining prime and composite numbers).

And here’s my favorite thing about these cases.

I only had to set them up ONCE (without even counting myself!) and my students have been able to keep track of our color tiles for many years now.

I can just pass out the cases and everything else is managed!

Math Manipulatives Storage with Plastic Makeup Jars

Ok, this one may sound a bit strange…but did you know that makeup jars provide an excellent container for storing smaller math manipulatives?

Thesi ze is just the best!

They are compact and can be kept in a larger bin when not in use.

And these jars are ideal for storing all those small math manipulatives, including:

• counters
• dice
• coins
• units cubes

The best part?

Just like the photo cases, these jars will be all ready for your students ahead of time…no need to frantically count out all those little supplies just before your math lesson.

And they are great for storing exact counts of materials, such as ten counters for our younger math learners.

If your students are storing these manipulatives in their desks, you can add their names to the bottom of the jars.

I love to use these removable labels:

If you are a math interventionist or math coach who works with small groups, these are very easy to change as groups are switched out throughout the year.

More Ideas for Organizing Math Manipulatives

Looking for more ideas for organizing math manipulatives?

Check out these posts next:

Let me know if you have any questions below…and happy organizing!