Big Fun for Little Hands with Jumbo Unifix Cubes

A few weeks ago, we shared a new tool for Unifix^® Cubes, the corner cube. This week, I wanted to introduce you to something else that’s new in the world of Unifix: the Jumbo Unifix cube. My three-year-old recently got into my box of Unifix Cubes and was having a good time building with them, until I handed him the jumbo cubes. His eyes lit up and he immediately went to work with the larger cubes. Bigger than our traditional Unifix Cubes, these are perfect for smaller hands in preschool and kindergarten classrooms. They are also popular with special education teachers and occupational therapists for students who are still developing their fine motor skills.

So, what can students do with these jumbo cubes? They can do anything they would do with traditional Unifix Cubes! Here are a couple of fun activities for little hands and Jumbo Unifix Cubes:

Counting

Work in pairs. Give students 6 Jumbo Unifix Cubes and either a dot die or a numeral cube, depending on their ability to recognize number symbols. Have one student roll the die and the other student build a tower with the correct number of cubes. This activity reinforces one-to-one correspondence and number recognition.

Patterns

Work in groups of two to four. Give students some Jumbo Unifix Cubes in two or three colors and ask them to make a pattern with their cubes. Challenge students to describe their pattern to others, and then to make a different pattern. Once students have experimented with patterns of their own, the teacher can ask them to copy someone else’s pattern, or they can describe a pattern either in words or visually and have students represent it with their cubes. These activities reinforce concepts of pattern and encourage students to think about all the ways they can represent a pattern.

If you’re working with young children, then Jumbo Unifix Cubes are a powerful tool for developing math concepts from an early age. Your students will love them!