L&O’s Mom, Thank you for sharing your ideas!
I’ve been thinking about this particular thread for weeks now…wondering if I’ll ever get my act together to post my pictures. I JUST got my rectangular wood pieces cut today, so now they are a bit higher up on my “To Do” pile (I don’t know about your pile, but mine doesn’t seem to ever shrink!). I also bought some new foam numbers a few days ago to punch holes into for cocktail straws - the last set I bought didn’t work out too well, but I want to try a different approach - another reason I love dollar stores - cheap enough to make a mistake and buy a 2nd set!
As for < and > when I taught kgtn I maded these little cardboard circles with a triangular mouth cut out (picture pac man). I had some red glitter glue to paint “lips” around the mouth to make it a little fun - but they did not have eyes…only the mouth. I told the kids that they were my Math Munchers and that they always wanted MORE. It didn’t matter that they didn’t have eyes, their mouths could always figure out where there was more…and, they would turn their mouths that direction. When we did paper/pencil activities, they each had their own math muncher and would trace the opening of the mouth between the two amounts or numerals.
He had such an easy time understanding “more” and “less” because of the sounds these numbers make - one is “Piano” and eight is “Forte”. Plus, there’s the tactile element, too, of the fuzzy pipecleaner.