Typically when you think of clotheshangers and clothespins you are envisioning a date with your washer, some dirty clothes, and a little bit of Tide right? Little did you know that these simple household supplies can be great manipulatives for learning! Here are just a few ideas that I have used in with my class. I'm sure there are countless others. Let your imagination go with it!!
First, to teach addition, fact families, missing addends, etc. you can attach clothespins to the two sides of the bottom of a clotheshanger. For the example below I was teaching missing addends so I attached a paper with the total to the top, attached clothespins to one side for one part, and the students attached clothespins to the other side to figure out what the missing part was. They wrote the number sentences on a small whiteboard.
Clothespins can also be a fun tool for spelling or sight word practice. Write the letters of the alphabet with a marker on the ends of the clothespins. For spelling practice I wrote the words on index cards and the students had to find the lettered clothespins and attach them to the card in the correct order.
