How to Make Math Tool Kits for Kids | Free File
Math tool kits are the perfect way to keep math tools organized for your daily math lessons. Check out how I make a portable storage kit for students that can be used throughout the school year. Plus you can download a free resource for your own math kits.
Why Should You Use Math Tool Kits?
Having a portable kit of hands-on math manipulatives and resources is a great way to keep students engaged in learning – no matter the grade level. Plus, we all know that when we are organized, our lessons are SO. MUCH. BETTER!
I have said this before… I am NOT organized by nature. I am a stacker and shuffler. I make stacks starting in August and I shuffle them until May… OY!
I use to keep math mats and manipulatives in one container and stacked them. Not really efficient… definitely not organized. Time was wasted each day as I passed out the materials that were needed for the math lesson. Who has time to waste each day? Not me! Who wants 5 and 6-year-olds to have idle time? Definitely not! So how could I solve this problem? Create a math kit!
Math Tool Kits
TA DA!! Math kits! Or… math toolbox… Or WHATEVER you want to call them.
I used binders, you may want to use some other type of storage containers. The most important thing is that it is an effective way to keep all of your student math resources together and it is student-friendly.
These can be used to organize any math tool resources, regardless of the program you use.
During our math workshop, my students worked in pairs. So I created 10 math tool kits for my 20 students. Each set of partners was assigned to one tool kit.
Our Math Workshop is super hands-on. I want to make learning fun and I love that students are continuously engaged in our daily math lessons. Every math lesson requires tools for students to use. So having them all together made perfect sense.
Each binder includes a zipper pouch to hold the math essentials needed for your lessons. These are a great organizational tool to ensure nothing gets lost. You can grab them from Walmart or Target or check them out on Amazon, HERE.
A Little Tip… Number Your Students’ Math Toolkits!
I recommend that you number each tool kit. Every day, the same partners get the same kit. In this way, if one group is rough on a set or if pieces go missing, I only have to deal with one binder, not 10. You may have to change out the occasional zipper pouch here and there (oftentimes good quality pouches will hold up all year long) but the kits should stay in good shape from the beginning of the year to the end and for years to come.
Yes, it took some organizing… Call your teacher BFF, put on a chick-flick marathon, and have at it. You will save SO MUCH precious instructional time and your sanity. Once it is done, it is DONE! I think you will love it.
What goes inside a math tool kit?
This will depend on what resources you need your students to use throughout your math lessons. Inside the tool kit, I have everything we will need (minus the manipulatives) for the ENTIRE YEAR! YES! THE ENTIRE YEAR!! Math talk cards, 10 frames, and smaller pieces are kept in the zipper pouch. All of the math work mats and talk cards are from our Guiding Kinders math series. The dry erase marker is also kept in this pouch. In this way, I do not have to organize the binders week after week, year after year. Once they are done… they are done!
Each piece inside the tool kit is also numbered. So, if I find one of our number lines, a number bonds mat, or ANY missing piece on the floor, I can easily get those back to the correct kit.
Additional supportive materials can be added. I have included a 100’s and 120’s chart in the free download.
WAIT! WHAT ABOUT THE MANIPULATIVES?
When we are in a unit that needs snap cubes, I simply add them to the zipper pouch. Then 5 days later when we don’t need the snap cubes anymore, I remove them. By doing this I SAVE SO MUCH TIME and set my students up for future math success. Passing out materials to kindergarten, 1st, or even 2nd grade students can sometimes lead to a wee bit of monkey business. Time saver = check! Sanity saver = double check!
FREE MATH TOOL KIT
The math tool kit setup guide and labels are available as a free download. Simply add your name and email to the box at the end of this blog post. You will receive an email with the downloadable file. Plus, you will be added to my email list for additional resources!
Check out these links to get the materials that go inside the Math Tool Kit for early elementary students:
- Guiding Kinders Math Curriculum for the Entire Year
- Guiding Firsties Year Long Guided Math Lessons for First Grade
- Math Tool Kit Resources (work mats, math-talk cards, binder covers, and binder spine labels)
Here are some other math resources you may be interested in!
- Kindergarten Math Supplements – These are kindergarten math printables that can be used to practice essential math skills. This resource can be used for math centers, morning work, or homework. There are also journal prompts included.
- First Grade Math Supplements
- Kindergarten Math Centers Year Long Bundle
- Book Based Math Centers Bundle
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Deedee Wills
My teaching career allowed me to experience teaching in different classroom environments and grades. My heart belongs to early childhood education. My job is to make teaching FUN, ENGAGING, and EASIER. Welcome!
Hi, I'm DeedeE.
My teaching career allowed me to experience teaching in different classroom environments and grades. My heart belongs to early childhood education. My job is to make teaching FUN, ENGAGING, and EASIER. Welcome!
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38 Responses
You can no longer EVER say you are not organized. Those are amazing. I bet it saves TONS of time. What a great idea! Thank you for sharing!!!
Deedee, I love this idea. I was wondering, do you have 10 binders for each unit or do replace the existing binders with the next unit.
Thanks, Debbie
No, I make 10 binders (students share). I put all of the work mats and math talk cards in them for he entire year. The zipper pouch will have the math talk cards and 10 frames. Then we add manipulatives as we need them in the units.
So once they are done! They! Are! Done!
I have the same question as Debbie. I made the binders but was wondering what all went into them.
I put all of the work mats and math talk cards in them for the entire year. The work mats and math talk cards are part of our Guiding Kinders math series. The zipper pouch will have the math talk cards and 10 frames. Then we add manipulatives as we need them in the units.
I love this idea. I am losing so much time this year (for a variety of reasons) and this would be a great "tool" to add to our Math portion of the day. I too would like to know what exactly is in your tool kit. I see cubes, a spinner, dry erase pen, 100's chart, but there appears to be more. Do you mind sharing the details? Thanks so much.
No, I make 10 binders (students share). I put all of the work mats and math talk cards in them for the entire year. The zipper pouch will have the math talk cards and 10 frames. Then we add manipulatives as we need them in the units.
So once they are done! They! Are! Done!
Are the math toolkit binders still available on TPT? I’m not finding them! ☹️
Are the math toolkit binders still on TPT? Same question..was not finding them either.
Here is the link 🙂
FREE Curriculum Organization Guide
Where can I find a copy of the Math Tool Kit cover sheet and binder paper to print? Thanks
If you click at the bottom of the post, you can request a copy of the cover. 🙂
You have exactly the same product as Mrs. Jump on TPT . I downloaded them both and the titles are slightly different but the product is the same.
Curriculum Organization Guide and FREE sample
By Deanna Jump
FREE Curriculum Organization Guide
By Deedee Wills
Who is the real author?
Hi there!
Deanna and I are co-authors on this curriculum guide. So we both are 🙂
Do you happen to have a list of everything in the tool kits? I have the workshop units but I am only on Unit 4. I was wanting to go ahead and make these to use now.
Love this idea!!
Hi there! YES! In the bundle, we added all of the year’s pieces in one download. Just redownload the file and you are good to GO!!! I’m so excited you love it. It was a GAME CHANGER in my room!
What if you don’t own the Bundle just individual units 1-6?
Deedee, What size binder do you use for your tool kits?
a 1″ binder works perfectly!
Deedee, I just want to ask are you cleaning out the pouch after every unit and putting the next units math talk cards in? Thank you!!
No, I don’t take too much out through the year. I will swap out the manipulatives we are using to match the unit that we are in though.
I am trying to set up my tool kits and am slightly confused of how many sorting mats and task cards go in each binder. Is it one sorting mat per pair or per child. Also, for the task cards (they come 3 per page) is this one page for each partner pair or are the pages for 3 partner pairs? Please help!!
So… the toolkits are intended to be shared with a partner. So for my class of 20, I made 10 kits. As far as the math talk cards, one set of partners just need 1 card. So when you see 3 on a page, that would work for 3 partners (6 students). I hope that helps!
Yes this helps, Thank you!
Hi Deedee, I have printed off the math tool kit binder front page and spine in the past. Are these still available for free? I am just needing the page with the spine labels on it. I had to go from 20 students to 30 and need to make additional math tool kits for my new students. I cannot find my original copy of the spine pages. I looked on tpt but see that the file you have is a different cover page. Do you still have the old picture like the one in this post? I need all the binders to be the same. Thanks. Julie Miller
Yes! They are in the curriculum guide. You can grab it on the sidebar of my blog 🙂
Hello! I downloaded your curriculum guide…lovely! Thanks for sharing! Question: Was it supposed to include the math talk, math mats etc.? The one I downloaded only has the binder decorations and the 100’s chart. Is there a way to access the math mats, math talk etc.?
Thank you!
Hi there! Yes, you can find all of the math talk cards and such in our math units:
https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Kindergarten-Math-COMPLETE-BUNDLE-ALL-ELEVEN-UNITS-1195697
or you can buy just the files for the math toolkits:
Math Tool Kits
I hope that helps!
Hi,
I love the idea of math tool kits! I’ve tried several of the links on the page but they don’t link to the TpT page. Has something changed?
Thank you in advance!
Here is the link! 🙂
Math Tool Kits
For the math talk cards, does each kit get a whole sheet or only one of each talk card? Also, do you have a copy of the 100s chart? It doesn’t seem to be included with the purchased tool kit.
Thanks!
Each kit gets one of each of the math talk cards. YES, the 100’s chart is free in the curriculum download on my blog sidebar! 🙂
I am truly upset I have been going crazy looking for this . I have to implement this in my classroom and this is exactly what I need but I can not find it to download it. It takes me to Teacher pay teachers but it say sorry. Can you let me know if there is another way I can get these. Thank you I am really desperate.
Hmm… I’m not sure where things are going wrong for you. The very last box in the post is where you request access to it. Once you put your email in, you get a confirmation email with a spot that says “Almost there… click to download!” I can see that you have done that from my email server. I suspect the file has gone into your Junk/Spam folder. I will try to send it out to you again. It has been downloaded over 20k times, so I don’t think there is a problem with the file.
If you don’t see it in your junk folder, you can email me and we can try it that way. [email protected]
Deedee and Deanna,
You two have a special place in the teacher line for Heaven! Y’all work so hard and help us all so much, your work does not go unappreciated!
Thank you does not seem like enough.
(but) THANK YOU!
Tami
Thank you!!!!
Hello, we purchased your math Kinders curriculum. Does each binder have all the materials (cards, tens frames, etc.) For example, each child would have 3 cards, two circles, 1 set of 3 tens frames, and a sorting mat? Is there a list somewhere of all the items? I saw the free curriculum guide on TPT, but still am not 100% sure! I want to make sure I have everything we need.
Yes! All the materials are in the math curriculum. So you should be good to go!