Part-Part-Whole Bracelets

I did something similar to this last year. This year, when we made our bracelet, I made certain they used five beads of one color, and five beads of another color.

I showed them how to do part-part-whole addition problems using the bracelet, which they quickly learned. The next day, I introduced subtraction problems, which were harder, but after a couple of days they got the hang of it!

The 10 Bracelet and Number Sentences

Taking a cue from another teacher on Pinterest, I had each student make a bracelet out of pipe cleaners and 10 beads. In the past when we've worked on number sentences, we used manipulatives like unifix cubes or little bears, etc. But the children loved having their own bracelet they could keep in their cubbies and use for math time.