RightStart Math Level A Getting Started Guide

This is your RightStart Math Level A Getting Started Guide – which manipulatives are needed in Level A (and which are not, so you can put them aside for a year), which games are played in Level A, where can you find corrections to the teachers’ manual, etc.

A lot of this stuff I didn’t know existed at all last year and would have loved to have all this info compiled in one place so now that I’ve completed RSM A I thought I’d pull it all together for you!

RightStart Math Level A Review

First up, let’s make sure you’re in the right place! Not sure if Level A is the right level for your child?  Take the placement test here and check out some sample lessons here.

Next, if you’re not a RightStart Math user yet and are considering using RSM with your child, check out my review of RightStart Math Level A (written post here; YouTube video below)

Also check out my unboxing video to see what all comes in Level A + the manipulatives kit

Organizing your RightStart Math Manipulatives

If you’ve gotten your RightStart Math Manipulatives kit (and are maybe feeling overwhelmed with allllll the awesome stuff) then you’re probably trying to figure out how to organize and store it all.  There are tons of ways you might want to do that, but here’s how I have ours:

But wait!!

Before you organize everything, you might want to check out this list I made.  When I got my manipulatives set I did not take the time to go through every lesson in Level A to figure out what I’d be using and what (if anything) I’d not be using that year.  So I just organized it all and kept it all together.

Now that I’ve been through Level A I know that there are a few items we didn’t use last year that I could have stored away somewhere else so that my boxes would have been a little less cluttered.

Here’s the list of manipulatives we used in A:

• Yellow is the sun book and cd
• tally sticks
• colored tiles
• abacus
• multiplication card sets
• basic number cards (1-10)
• geoboard and rubber bands
• place value cards
• abacus tiles
• math balance and weights
• geometry reflector
• coins
• dry erase board
• centimeter cubes
• calculator (only used for one lesson and in hindsight I wish I had just skipped this one)
• geometric solids
• clock
• tangrams
• fraction chart
• fraction cards

And here are the manipulatives we did NOT use in A (feel free to put these in storage for a year!)

• base 10 picture cards
• drawing board set
• geometry panels
• 4 in 1 ruler
• folding meter stick
• goniometer
• money card deck
• corners card deck
• clock/time cards

Additional materials

The manipulatives kit (also called the Math Set on the website) has everything you need for all the lessons but there are a few supplemental things I have added in (again, 100% optional and you don’t have to buy these but they are nice to have)

• Abacus – if there are younger siblings at home, I recommend getting more than one abacus.  My younger ones love to play with the abacus while big brother is doing his school work and this prevents them from stealing his.
• Abacus Jr – I love these smaller abacuses for schooling on the go!  We keep the standard size ones (the one that came with the manipulatives kit plus my extra one) in our school room but my boys keep the Abacus Jrs in their backpacks to use when we’re out and about.
• Fraction Puzzle – While the manipulatives kit comes with a fraction set that is perfectly fine, this wooden fraction puzzle is a nice upgrade!  We used the set that came with the kit in Level A (there are only a few lessons about fractions in Level A anyway) but got the puzzle during Level B and love it!  It’s much easier to pick up the pieces and the frame keeps the pieces from sliding all over the place.
• Place Value Card and Base Ten Card Holder Set – This made it so, so much easier to keep the place value cards and base ten cards organized and easy to access!  (this is not needed much in A as you don’t use the base ten cards at all and only use the place value cards some, but it’s nice to have before Level B)

Corrections to your Teacher’s Guide

Take a minute to correct some mistakes in your Teacher’s Guide – there aren’t very many but there are a few and you can find those all here. You can also find corrections for the Game Book here.

Appendix

Your Teacher’s Guide has an appendix in the back and your curriculum should have also come with those appendix pages already printed onto cardstock for you (so handy!) but if for some reason things get lost or torn or whatever, you can also download and print the appendix for Level A here.

If you happen to misplace or not purchase the envelopes for the multiplication cards you can make your own by printing off the multiples patterns and gluing those to your own envelopes.

Songs

The manipulatives kit comes with a cd with a couple of songs that you’ll use throughout Level A.  If you’re like me and you now longer have cd players or computers with cd drives in them, no worries – here are the mp3s

Games

Next up let’s talk about games.  One of the awesome things about RightStart Math is that it’s very focused on games.  But the game book can be a little overwhelming because allllll the games are in there for all the levels.  Here’s a document on the RSM website that tells you exactly which games are played in Level A.  This is great if you want to look ahead or to use as a resource for reviewing later in the year.

Here’s a list of favorite games grouped by type (a list for preschool, lists for addition practice, subtraction, etc.)

Apps

Did you know RSM has apps?  Yep!  There are a couple that go along with Level A – an abacus app, Go to the Dump, and Fraction War (also Corners, which doesn’t get introduced until Level B)

Now.  Hear me loud and clear – you do NOT need these apps to be successful with RSM.  I did not use them a single time in A.  I only have them now on my phone because they ran them as freebies for a few days so I grabbed them then, we still have not used them.  My kids don’t do a lot of apps (no judgment if yours do, that’s just our preference) so we haven’t used them yet but I have them in my back pocket if I need something for them to do on my phone in a pinch.

I’m just including them in this post so that you have the link and know about them, but don’t feel like you need to buy them.

You can find those here.

Lesson Overviews

If you are a learner who does better listening/watching than you do reading you might really like these lesson overviews that RSM has put out!  Each video gives a brief explanation of what will be covered in the next several lessons.

These were not around last year so I haven’t used them personally but I wanted to include them for you new Level A teachers!

Here’s the video showing the first four lessons.  You can find all the rest of them here.

More resources

Most of these links I’ve gathered here I found by poking around the RSM website.  There is a ton of info on there but I tried to compile the things I thought would be most relevant to someone who is starting out with Level A.

In addition to what I’ve shared here, the Teaching Support page has more great stuff such as an explanation of how the abacus works, links to research regarding RSM, etc.

Ta Da!

And there you go!  There’s your RightStart Math Level A Getting Started Guide.  If I come across other handy resources I’ll continue to update this post so that it can be a comprehensive place to help you get started!