Using Manipulatives

I was nervous today as I started to teach my math lesson. As I began to teach, the feeling subsided. I allowed the students to sit in a circle using manipulatives to count. I wrote numbers on a dry erase board and the students had to use counters to represent the numbers. I was so proud of a female student that sat beside me. She does not know her numbers and she is easily distracted. As we worked, she seemed to understand numbers better and she was usually the first one to represent the number I wrote down. I believe using manipulatives helps children to understand concepts better and I hope I can continue to have ideas using them.