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Box of Cuisenaire rods with sliding lid under the box, circa 1965. Each coloured rod represented a number between 1 and 10.
About the object
About the object
Cuisenaire rods were used as a concrete material for mathematics in the 1960s and 70s. They are coloured wooden rods in a specially designed wooden box with a sliding lid.
The rods were used in both infants and primary classrooms.
Belgian teacher, Georges Cuisenaire, invented the rods and they became popular in Europe in the early 1950s.
The colours and lengths of each rod represent one to ten. One is a one centimetre cube and an orange ten rod is ten centimetres long.
Students used the rods to help them understand addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, fractions and number factors.
The language of Cuisenaire rods was mats, staircases and trains.
Significance
Significance
Cuisenaire rods were one of the first concrete materials used in schools.
We have many boxes of Cuisenaire rods in our collection, indicating the popularity of them in NSW primary schools.
Object details
Object details
Date – circa 1965
Creator – NSW Department of Education
Place – NSW
Materials – timber
Dimensions – box – length 29.2cm, width 22.5cm x height 4cm
Look closer
Look closer
Cuisenaire RodsYouTube | NSW Schoolhouse Museum of Public Education (1:35min) | Video transcript | Alternate video link
Box of Cuisenaire rods on a desk with a page from an upper primary mathematics text book.
Close-up of the rods in a box of Cuisenaire rods, showing the 1cm cube rods that represented one.
Mat of ten made using Cuisenaire rods. The mat is made of two staircases of ten joined together. The orange rods top and bottom represent ten.
Rod colours and lengths
Rod colours and lengths
1 - white - 1cm long
2 - red - 2cm long
3 - light green - 3cm long
4 - pink - 4cm long
5 - yellow - 5cm long
6 - dark green - 6cm long
7 - black - 7cm long
8 - brown - 8cm long
9 - dark blue - 9cm long
10 - orange - 10cm long
Think and wonder
Think and wonder
See
See
What do you notice first?
What colours and shapes are the rods?
What would the rods feel like to touch and hold?
What features of the storage box do you notice?
Think
Think
How would you like to use the rods?
How might the rods help students understand number operations such as addition and subtraction?
What positive behaviours would be expected of students when using Cuisenaire rods?
Wonder
Wonder
What do you wonder about Cuisenaire rods?
What else would you like to know about them?
Do
Do
Number trains showed the factors of numbers and were used to find the product.
These trains show the factors of 10. The orange rod represents 10, yellow – 5, red – 2 and white – 1.
Write three number sentences for students to complete using this mat.
Write two problems that this mat could help students solve.
Explore and connect
Explore and connect
Magnetic set of Cuisenaire rods leaning against a blackboard, circa 1970.
Magnetic set of Cuisenaire rods, circa 1970
Magnetic set of Cuisenaire rods, circa 1970
This large set of Cuisenaire rods is designed for demonstrating work with rods.
Each rod has a magnet attached to the underside and the board is metal so the rods stay in place.
The board could be hung on a hook or leant up against the blackboard.
On the board is a mat of 12. Underneath the mat of 12 are two trains of 12.
What does the mat of 12 demonstrate mathematically?
Page from A Practical Guide to Cuisenaire Mathematics Grade Two Work Book 1 by A.L. Cole, Horwitz-Martin text books, 1966
A Practical Guide to Cuisenaire Mathematics Grade 2, 1966
A Practical Guide to Cuisenaire Mathematics Grade 2, 1966
This mathematics text book was for students in second grade. This page asks students to make a 'staircase mat of 10' then to adjust it to make a 'staircase mat of 11'.
Students read the rows to complete addition sums. They then move the staircases apart slightly to answer subtraction 'sums'. The students then make trains for 11 and answer division questions.
Mathematics text books using Cuisenaire rods were published for both infants and primary grades.
Can you see the two staircases in the mat of 11?
Number products chart based on the colours of Cuisenaire rods produced by NSW Department of Education, circa 1970Collection number 2011-40
Number products wall chart, circa 1970
Number products wall chart, circa 1970
This number products chart was designed to hang on the wall of the classroom. It supported activities in mathematics work books used in infants classrooms in the 1960s and 70s. It was produced by the NSW Department of Education.
The chart uses the colours of the Cuisenaire rods to represent numbers. A number product is the result when two numbers are multiplied together.
What it represents
What it represents
First diagram – students make a train of two red rods (red is 2) – 2x2=4.
Second diagram – the students make a train of two pink rods (pink is 4) and four red rods – 2x4=8, 4x2=8.
Third diagram – students make a train of four pink rods, a train of two brown rods (brown is 8) and a train of eight red rods – 4x4=16, 2x8=16, 8x2=16.
The chart is made of vinyl and has a dowel rod top and bottom for hanging. An erasable China marker pencil or crayon has been used to write the products into the blank circles on this chart.
What are your first impressions of this chart?
We acknowledge the Traditional Owners of the lands of people using this site. Is, always was, always will be – Aboriginal land.
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