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Number Rods

Interactive math apps for integer rods

copyright(c) 2004-2020 Architectronics

Click these links to go the apps or use the apps embedded in this page

Rods

RodTrains

iPad version of RodTrains

RodBalanceBeam

Rodney

Rodney Animator

NumberTable

Letter Stretch

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Rods app: 
  • Drag horizontal or vertical rods onto the grid.
  • Use the chisel tool to break rods. 
  • Use the glue tool to join rods. 
  • Use the grid tool to toggle the grid display on or off
  • Drop the ball to hear a rod melody (computer only, not tablet)

Rods: an introduction to the Cuisenaire® Rods. With horizontal and vertical rods, players can create designs and pictures and explore and extend patterns.  There is even a way to set patterns to music.  Once they notice the different lengths of the ten rods, the youngest players can begin to explore concepts of "longer", "shorter" and "equivalent".   On this app, players can practice addition and difference by making rod trains (two or more rods end to end) and by fusing and splitting the rods with the glue and the chisel icons.

RodsTrains app: 
  • Drag rods onto the grid.
  • Drop the multiplier tool on a rod to make copies of it, change the multiplier by entering a number in the box
  • Drop the E tool to erase a line of rods
  • Use the chisel tool to break rods. 
  • Use the glue tool to join rods. 
  • Use the grid tool to toggle the grid display on or off
  • Drop the ball to hear a rod melody (computer only, not tablet)

Rod Trains: All the features of the Rods app can be found on Rod Trains plus a feature that allows students to multiply rods quickly and to erase a line of rods. This is the place to study fractions – including how fractions are named, how to create equivalent fractions and how to perform all operations on fractions.

BalanceBeam app: 
  • Drag rods onto the "hooks" on the beam.
  • Add or remove rods, or add them in a stack
  • Change the number of hooks using the box
  • The balance beam tilts to show which side is "heavier"
  • It's a multiplication activity.  Each "hook" is a value that is multiplied by what hangs on it.
  • Example:  7 * 6 > 3 * 2 + 6 * 4
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Balance Beam:  This tool focuses on multiplicative equivalences:  Students balance products and sums of products.
Rodney app: 
  • Drag the blocks to pose Rodney
  • Rodney's body parts are proportional to the rods.
NumberTable app: 
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  • Drag the red ball to show the target number factored into the divisor number at the top of the table.  The left side of the table shows how many times the divisor "goes into" the target number, and shows the remainder if there is one.
  • Change the target number in the box
  • Add a skip counting number in the blue box
  • Add a second skip counting number in the yellow box
  • Start and stop skip counting with the menu items
  • Skip counting will proceed to highlight boxes and color them with blue, yellow or green (divisible by BOTH)
  • Change the speed of skip counting with the speed box
  • Choose a percentage of numbers to display and print the screen for a worksheet for students to fill in.
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