FAQs

We have two versions of each book.  Our premium book holds coins.  Our less expensive version is the same book (not quite as tall or wide) but does not hold coins in place.

We also have a bundled package of a premium book for the classroom and copies of the less-expensive book for each of your students to use in the classroom and/or to take home.

Coming soon.  That stated, in our opinion, there is no app that can replicate the learning experience with the nimbleNumbers book.  Our book is essentially a “security blanket” for each student. No app could ever substitute for the same kind of “security blanket” that the book provides.

If your school has adopted nimbleNumbers, the price for a home copy includes a 10% discount.

There are three books:  $0.00 to $1.00, $1.01 to $2.00 and $-0.01 to -$1.00

For sure!  Each book is designed to lay next to any other book.

Yes…big time!  Just the process of unfolding our book helps alleviate math anxiety.  For example, counting coins on a table is helpful. But this activity can also be a mystery to some students.  Counting coins in the book is a completely different experience. The book organizes the learning process.

Researchers refer to the working memory of the brain and the effect of math anxiety during the learning process.  We are not scientist or researchers, but we like to think of the book as a sort of “working memory” for each student.

We provide meaning and context to the use of manipulatives and computation!  Less anxiety…more understanding!

Often a topic of conversation amongst parents!   We suggest coordinating with your classroom teacher on how he/she is using the book in the classroom.  What manipulatives, such as Base 10 Bars, pizza slices, etc are being used in the classroom that you can re-in force at  home. Also, feel free to use our videos at nimbleNumbers.org to gain ideas as to how to best help…especially when you child is stuck on a problem or is beginning to express frustration.

Not really.  Our videos are a guide for parents and teachers coupling our resource book with your curriculum, your teaching pace and your teaching style.  We flex to your instruction, as opposed to our products teaching your children or students.

Wow, great question.  The nimbleNumber’s model is time consuming.  We assume that if a student has deep understanding and is less anxious, he/she can move to the short-cuts (writing or computing portion of our teaching model) as soon as the student is ready. 

Most students must understand and explain math before they do math shortcuts. Are we, as a society, willing to just have students study quickly or would we rather have them learn deeply? For most, breaking the achievement gap requires a holistic approach…the nimbleNumber’s approach!

We do not write curriculum.  We do offer videos, at nimbleNumbers.org, presenting suggestions for specific types of problems, concepts or introducing numbers.  nimbleNumbers is a resource (manipulative) designed to complement your curriculum, your pacing, your teaching style and can be combined with other manipulatives that you may be using.

Our book is the essential think and work space.  That stated, the book provides a lot of white space to add post-it notes, vocabulary cards etc.  For example, you could tape vocabulary cards on the book for presenting ratios and proportions. We chose to leave off most vocabulary and print only the vocabulary words matching each coin.

Absolutely.  Please use dry erase markers. Like with any dry erase board, try to wipe off the surface when finished.  If writing is left on the book for too long, the pages will be much more difficult to clean.

Great question!  The book is ideally used on the floor, on a few tables put together or resting on the marker (chalk) tray of a white (chalk) board.  This is especially true for large group instruction.

We highly recommend purchasing our nimbleNumber’s counter display.  This display contains individual pages from the book. With this feature, students can follow along at their desk and/or write on an individual page while doing small group or individual work.

Fun and congratulations.  This resource book is an ideal tool in the home and within a home school association classroom.  Our recommendation is to combine our book with other manipulatives on the way to computation. For example, if we were teaching a 10 year old improper fractions.  You could have your child build 21/20 with nickels and complement with drawings. Bottom line, we trust you as a parent/teacher!

Coming soon will be a number line by tenths, designed for teaching exponents and roots, using the vintage nimbleNumber’s model combined with your curriculum, pacing and teaching approach.  We will also have a shorter (but not wider) books that is about five inches tall that includes pennies, nickels and dimes on the fraction side and integers on the alternate side.

Often talked about!  We recommend using real money.  Real money provides an authentic math experience.  That stated, plastic money may be more practical given the size of the class and the management of a given classroom. 

The short answer is that classroom use depends on your teaching style.  For the longer answer, you may want to try the following:

Bell work:  Daily, or used occasionally for variety, present The nimbleNumber of The Day (posted at nimbleNumbers.org).  Bell work could introduce a number that will be used in the lesson. For example, if you are working with improper fractions such as 11/10, have students build multiple combinations of 110 cents.  The coin combinations will then preview 11/10.

Stations or Centers:  One of our favorite applications, the nimbleNumbers resource book adapts to a plethora of math topics:  integers, fractions, decimals, per cents, ratios, proportions, one and two step equations etc. You can also have stations or centers which focus on a specific idea such as:  prove that 9 divided by 4 does NOT equal 2.1, prove the multiplicative inverse of 3/2, etc. See website for these and other ideas for stations or centers.  

New Unit Introduction or Conclusion:  This would involve a more intensive approach than the aforementioned bell work section.  Imagine that you are introducing a mini-unit for simplifying fractions.  

Whether it is new knowledge or a refresh unit, have students build five  pennies and one nickel. Have the students study the natural simplification from 5/100 to 1/20…or any column of coins which is best suited to your teaching.  As students organically study the simplification of coins, you can ask, “Are there other cent values that can be simplified that do not have coins bigger than a dime?”   Monitor which students can identify 1/5 of a dollar or other fractions that do not coincide with a given currency. Powerful stuff!

Summer School and Tutoring:  You may find that nimbleNumbers works for stations or bell work during the traditional school year, but not in a large group – gradual release setting.  Individual and small group tutoring or during a summer school session are ideal settings for coordinating your curriculum in conjunction with nimbleNumbers.