I recently took on the task of painting the inside of our house. We had been living in it for 11 years and it needed it. The walls had the “learning to walk” handprints along the walls, dirt spots from where the dog lays, and was looking a little worn. So this last spring, I spent my weekends’ painting and it looks great! The extra paint sticks I had laying around motivated me to make some math sorts. What a great hands-on teaching tool!

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Supplies Needed

If you go to any home improvement store, they are usually happy to give you paint sticks. Next, I put a strip of velcro tape on one side of the stick.

I put one square velcro piece on the top, for the topper.

Paint sticks make a great tool for hands-on learning

Paint Stick Sorts

At the beginning of the year, we work on number representation. So we pulled out our number stick sorts and the kids had a blast with them. Last week, we reviewed numbers 1-10. This week, I will put the numbers 11-20 in for some “teen” review.

Hands-on learning with number paint sticks.

I change out the sorts throughout the year, depending on the math concept we are working on. My students love when they learn there is a new type of paint stick sort in their math tubs.

Paint stick sorts can be found in my TPT store, or below.