Math manipulatives are small objects that help with teaching math. They are useful tools for teachers and students. Manipulatives are physical teaching tools which engage students not just visually, but also physically. Using them was more enjoyable than doing mathematics that was solely abstract and symbolic.

• They provide a hands-on way in which to explore and learn. When children are using these materials in natural ways, they are learning differently than they are when they are only listening or watching a lesson. This tactile learning builds a more profound, personal understanding of math concepts.
• By touching and exploring hands-on materials, children use their senses, which allows more cognitive connections to be made with a concept. Students are often lost in a muddle of symbols and numbers. For that reason, they need something concrete to understand difficult and complex math concepts. 
• Manipulatives serve as a bridge between concrete and abstract levels of complicated mathematical topics. Students were active, engaged and interested in lessons when manipulatives were used.
• Math manipulatives make it a lot more fun! Children of all ages enjoy using these concrete tools to make sense of the problems they are given. They mainly help younger learners who are learning new math concepts for the first time.
• A relationship is built when children see how to solve problems and given opportunities to “try” something using math manipulatives. With repeated practice and “play” with manipulatives, math fluency develops.
• The use of manipulatives can be very powerful in explaining the meaning and justifying the use of different mathematical processes such as compact algorithms. By asking learners to use manipulatives to demonstrate results and prove their truth in some sense, it will develop the mathematical thinking at the deep level required to support the conceptual understanding