Inside a kindergarten classroom with Augustana students  Old-
Fashioned Manipulatives or New Technology?  Last week with the
kindergarteners, I spent most of the time working on their
number sense by using manipulatives. During the previous week,
some of the students had completed an activity with number cards
and marbles, in which students select a number card, say the
number printed on the card, and show that number of marbles.
Higher ability students also were asked what one or two more or
less than a certain number was in this activity, a concept that
helps set the foundation for addition and subtraction. The
classroom teacher and I realized how flexible this activity was,
so we decided it could be used for all ability levels in the
class. I adapted the activity for lower ability levels by using
only cards with the numbers 1-10 on them and not advancing to
the more challenging concept of taking away or adding marbles.
For the higher ability students, the numbers 11-20 or higher
were used, and the students