Tagged with 'Rekenrek'

Early in my publishing career, I was working with an author on an updated book series. In the course of our discussion, he mentioned the Rekenrek, a tool for building early numeracy. This was, at the time, a very new tool in the United States even though its use could be tracked back for many years in the Netherlands. I was intrigued, but not quite sure what we could do with this tool that would help teachers enhance their instructional practice. Fast forward several years, and the Rekenrek is far more familiar. Many educators are embracing this tool with varying degrees of success. To make this implementation a little easier, Don Balka has developed two activity books for the Rekenrek: Working with the Rekenrek (with Ruth Harbin Miles) and Working with the 100-Bead Rekenrek. These books provide both teacher support and engaging student activities to help us all use the Rekenrek more effectively. If you’re looking for some ideas to get started with the Rekenrek, here are two new ideas based on these resources.