A board covered by a lattice of pegs around which one can span rubber bands to form segments and polygons. It was invented by the Egyptian mathematician and pedagogist Caleb Gattegno (1911-1988) as a manipulative tool for teaching elementary geometry in schools.

Geoboards give them the opportunity to make different sizes of the same shape and can be used to introduce fractions of square units. The language of geometry begins to take shape as students learn terms like scalene, isosceles, and right triangle while building examples of different triangles.

Developed by Egyptian-born, English mathematics scholar Caleb Gattegno, Geoboards are a tool used to teach children geometry. They were originally created as wooden squares with nails or brass pins in a variety configurations, upon which rubber bands could be stretched into various shapes.

Two-dimensional representations of the geoboard may be applied to ordinary paper using rubber stamps or special “geoboard paper” with diagrams of geoboards may be used to help capture a student’s explanations of the concept they have discovered or illustrated on the geoboard.

18 Clever Ways to Use Geoboards in the Classroom

1. Start with simple shapes.
2. Practice the ABCs …
3. 3. …
4. Create pictures with geoboards.
5. Analyze geoboard designs.
6. Match upper- and lowercase letters.
7. Use geoboards to teach area and perimeter.
8. Use shapes to make more shapes.

An equilateral triangle cannot be made on a geoboard because 2 sides will always be longer than the third side. An equilateral triangle has all sides and angles congruent.

Geoboards were invented and popularized by Egyptian mathematician Caleb Gattegno in the 1950s.

A geoboard is a board with pegs that you can use to wrap rubber bands around. Yes, you can make a geoboard yourself and it is quite easy. Your kids will love to play with it, too.

1. Cut and sand a piece of wood into a square (ours is 12×12).
2. Print a circle geoboard template.
3. Align it on your board and nail the corners on first to keep it straight.
4. Nail in the rest of the nails where ever there is a dot.
5. Tear the paper off after all of the nails are in place.

Learning Resources 5-Inch Double-Sided Assorted Geoboard Shapes, Set of 6 Boards, Ages 5+, Multi-color.

CUISENAIRE RODS Provide endless opportunities to introduce, investigate, and reinforce key math topics such as addition, subtraction, geometry, measurement, multiplication, and division.

Cuisenaire rods are mathematics learning aids for students that provide an interactive, hands-on way to explore mathematics and learn mathematical concepts, such as the four basic arithmetical operations, working with fractions and finding divisors.

Cuisenaire rods are used in the Silent Way, a teaching methodology associated with humanism. Rods of one colour are used to represent verbs, another is added at the end to represent the past -ed form.

The Silent Way is the name of a method of language teaching devised by Caleb Gattegno. It is based on the premise that the teacher should be silent as much as possible in the classroom but the learner should be encouraged to produce as much language as possible.

The silent way makes use of specialized teaching materials: colored Cuisenaire rods, the sound-color chart, word charts, and Fidel charts. For example, to teach prepositions the teacher could use the statement “The blue rod is between the green one and the yellow one”.

 The teacher is responsible for creating an environment that encourages student risk taking and that facilitates learning.  The teacher uses gestures, charts, and manipulates in order to elicit and shape student responses and so must be both facile and creative .

Direct Method (DM) method is language teaching method. Through this method students are directly taught with target language without using native language.