RightStart Math Level B Getting Started Guide

Here is your RightStart Math Level B Getting Started Guide – which manipulatives are needed in Level B (and which are not, so you can put them aside for a year), which games are played in Level B, where can you find corrections to the teachers’ manual, and more!  I just finished RSM Level B with my first grader and wanted to compile all this info for easy access for others!

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What level do you need?

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

Psssttt…looking for info about Level A instead of Level B?  I’ve got you covered!  Here’s my RightStart Math Level A Getting Started Guide and my RightStart Math Level A review

RightStart Math Level B Review

If you’re not a RightStart Math user yet and are considering using RSM Level B with your child, check out my review of RightStart Math Level B

If you stumbled on this post and think Level A might actually be a better choice (and you haven’t clicked through the links above already), here’s my review on Level A.

Also here’s my unboxing video to see what all comes in Level A + the manipulatives kit – Level B is almost identical, the teacher book and student workbook would be different of course, but everything else (aka the manipulatives kit) would be the same.

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:

Before you organize everything, you might want to check out this list I made.  Most of the items from the manipulatives kit are used in Level B but not all of them and the ones you don’t need could be stored away for the year so you have less to organize and keep up with.

Manipulatives we used in Level B:

• Yellow is the sun book and cd (this is only used in some early lessons as review from Level A – my son had mastered this in A so we skipped it in B)
• tally sticks
• colored tiles
• abacus
• multiplication card sets
• basic number cards (1-10)
• corners card deck
• geoboard and rubber bands
• place value cards
• base 10 picture cards
• abacus tiles
• math balance and weights
• geometry reflector
• coins
• money card deck
• dry erase board
• centimeter cubes
• geometric solids
• 4 in 1 ruler
• clock
• clock/time cards
• tangrams
• fraction chart
• fraction cards
• calculator (only used in two, maybe three lessons that are in my opinion optional as I don’t like having young kids use calculators)
• geometry panels (only used for one lesson toward the very end of the year)
• goniometer (only used for the very last lesson before the reviews/assessments, which is considered an extension activity)

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

• drawing board set
• folding meter stick

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)

• 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!  I highly recommend this!
• 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 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.  My son enjoys putting the puzzle together even outside of when we’re using it for lessons and uses it to teach his younger brother about fractions too.
• 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.

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.

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 B 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 might use in B (they’re used extensively throughout Level A but only in a few review lessons at the beginning of B).  If you’re like me and you no 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 B.  This is great if you want to look ahead or to use as a resource for reviewing later in the year.

You can also find corrections for the Game Book here.

Here’s a list of favorite games grouped by type (a list for preschool, lists for addition practice, subtraction, etc.)  The largest focus in Level B is on addition so check out the list for addition practice!

Apps

Did you know RSM has apps?  Yep!  And they go along perfectly with Level B!  There’s an abacus app, Go to the Dump, Corners, and Fraction War.

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 or B.  I only own them because they ran them as freebies for a few days so I grabbed them then.  My kids don’t do a lot of apps yet (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 in case that’s something your family would enjoy, 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.

Here’s the video showing the first four lesson overviews for Level B.  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 B.

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 B 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!