[Vella Gonzaga]

Cuisenaire rods​

​

Credits: Vintage and Nostalgia Co.

Who here used Cuisenaire rods to learn maths? They were used to teach kids addition, subtraction, multiplication, fractions, and more! But let's be honest—most kids just built towers with them! Still, they were handy, especially for those who found maths tricky. Do you have fond memories of playing with these?

 

[Wandiwa]

I learnt basic maths with those, we simply called them "rods". Such a basic concept, worked very very well.

 

[Suzanne rose]

I remember using them at school and certain colours equalled a number.

But I only knew them as Rods not Cuisenaire rods.

Hmm we never built towers, I remember Rods were a serious thing at school and never aloud to use as a toy

 

[Johan van Zalen]

Yeah I can remember them and yes we did call them rods, they have become extinct like the slide ruler

 

[Tricia56]

Yes, I used these and still have them stored away. Great way to teach what numbers make up what.
You can still buy them, a set on Amazon about $50.

 

[PattiB]

They were introduced after my time in lower primary school but my older sister was a teacher so I knew how to use them. A lot of older teachers didn’t like them because students still had to had to transit to using numbers. My headmaster father in law branded them a waste of time. OneOf my friends, who was a bookkeeper, used to envy the way the rest of us had an automatic response on multiplying numbers because with cuisenaire they didn’t learn times tables. I’ll be interested to hear whether members who used them found this

 

[Bob’s Buddy]

Absolutely loved them! Best way to learn all Maths!!! I had them for my kids too.Still visualise them in my head and enjoyed building towers.

 

[oldchook58]

I remember these, I had just changed schools and the new school had these Cuisonaire Rods for learning maths. I loved them as they were such pretty colours and they helped me to learn maths. We also had the maths charts and we would all say the "times table" together and at the end the teacher would point out someone and ask them what 5x8 was and you had better know the answer or you would get in trouble. So I made sure I learnt them because the teacher would embarras you in front of the whole class if you got the answer wrong. You could be made to stand in the corner or write out 5x8=40 100 times on the blackboard. The teachers of today wouldn't be allowed to do this. I still know my times tables today and don't neeed a calculater to do basic maths and still remember the maths formulas for working things out. So drilling in of maths in the early years worked for me, plus hard discipline teachers.

 

[Goo]

My older sister recently gave me her set of cuisenaire rods from her time as a teachers aid. Now my grandchildren love to play with them.

 

[Wandiwa]

Hmm we never built towers, I remember Rods were a serious thing at school and never allowed to use as a toy

Same here, I also remember the colours being far brighter than in the picture above.

 

[Keverall]

I did

 

[magpie1]

yes we had them at school, took a little getting used to at first but in the end was a great early experience in maths. And they were a lot brighter in colour than those shown here.

 

[lucky charm]

I also used them at school, and have them stored away. Hands on way to explore maths worked well .
We still used them at the preschool I worked at, children loved using them.