Shop

Frequently Asked Questions

FAQ: Purchasing

Please see take a look at the Kits Info Guide and our ready-made kit bundles

We suggest that you introduce the change gradually, one year at a time.

In the first year purchase the “Core Addition & Subtraction Kit”. Get used to the system starting with Maths Intervention working with groups of 4 students at a time.

In the second year purchase enough “Classroom Add-ons“ for Mental Maths with Year 1 students .

In the third year purchase enough “Classroom Add-ons” for Mental Maths with the Year 2 students.

In the fourth year purchase enough “Classroom Add-ons”  for Mental Maths with the Year 3 students.

In the fifth year compare data from your Year 3 students (who have had three years of Bond Blocks) with the previous Year 3s who did not go through the program!

Download the purchasing guide using the shop link at the top of this page for more information.

Core Addition & Subtraction Kit:

For Maths Intervention each group of 4 students needs one, “Core Kit Intervention Add-on (4 Blocks + Materials)”. This includes 4 sets of Bond Blocks and all other materials such as write-and-wipe sleeves.

For Mental Maths a class of 24 students would need one, “Core Kit Classroom Add-on (12 Block + Materials Pack)”. Most of the activities are designed for pairs. For individual activities students can take turns.

No.

Purchase one, “Core Kit”. This caters for 4 students for Intervention.

Then purchase one, “4 Block + Materials Pack Add On“. This will provide the 4 extra sets of Bond Blocks and other materials such as write-and-wipe sleeves to make up your kit work for a group of 8 students.

Purchase:

One “Counting to 10 & 20 Kit”.

Purchase “Counting Kit Classroom Add-Ons” for each class. A class of 24 students would need one, “Counting Kit – Classroom Add-On” .

Purchase:

One “Core Addition & Subtraction Kit”.

Purchase “Core Kit Classroom Add-Ons” for each class. A class of 24 students would need one, “Classroom Add-On” . Most of the activities are designed for pairs. For individual activities students can take turns.

Get in contact with us. We offer a discount for small schools.

Photocopies of the activity boards can also be sent home. Parents can access the instructional videos through the website – no logon needed. Perfect for remote learning.

Yes. Narelle wanted to help fellow homeschoolers so we made “Bond Blocks at Home”. The activity boards are the same as Core Kit that schools use but have a slightly different look to draw attention to their  limited licence (these boards cannot be used by schools). “Bond Blocks at Home” also only comes with one set of blocks, not four. 

Yes.

See the Counting to 10 & 20 with Bond Blocks Kit

FAQ: Using Bond Blocks

Please don’t hesitate to get in contact if you still have questions. 

For Maths Intervention students need four, 10 minute sessions a week.

Session 1: Introduce the activity.

Session 2 and 3: Repeat the activity to develop fluency.

Session 4: Repeat an activity from an earlier part of the program to monitor retention and maintain fluency.

For whole class warmup sessions in Years 1 to 3 you need approximately three, 8 minutes sessions a week.

For more information read the Implementation Guide. 

The Bond Block kits do not cover the whole maths curriculum. They are specific and target the skills predictive of difficulty at different stages of development. Refer to the Curriculum Links page under the menu page of each kit to see exactly what is and isn’t covered. 

Bond Blocks was written for Maths Intervention with students who have learning difficulties in mind. There are three Teacher Notes documents written outlining how Bond Blocks supports students with:

(i) Specific Learning Difficulties in Mathematics (Dyscalculia). See “Developing Calculation, Not Counting.”

(ii) Working Memory Difficulties. See “Using Part-Part-Whole Desk Visuals”.

(iii) Learning Difficulties. See “Supporting Students with Learning Difficulties”.

In the planners 8 minute clocks denote a ‘fluency’ warm up session. This does not include set-up and pack-away time. The goal is for 8 minutes maximum of focused engagement. The aim is short practice, often.

By taking time to develop an efficient whole class routine, the Teacher Led Bond Blocks Activity sessions can go from initially taking 30 minutes, down to 15 minutes. Within the 15 minutes students engage in the specific Bond Blocks activity for 8 minutes. It takes a lot of Term One to develop this routine. This is time well spent! Through this routine young students can be taught and learn how to:

  • follow instructions.
  • respect materials through packing away and using them appropriately.
  • listen attentively to explicit teaching.
  • take turns.

These are essential skills required for effective learning in a whole class setting

For tips to help make implementation with the Addition and Subtraction Core Kit more efficient watch this video: Bond Blocks General Implementation Tips.

Tier two intervention is run in groups of up to four students, for ten minutes, four times a week. When starting schedule a group every 20 minutes. Once routines are well established groups can often be run every 15 minutes.

This means one education assistant could work with up to 4 groups of 4 students per hour, for 5 hours each day, repeated four days in the week. This is 80 students per one Education Assistant, four days of the week.

Yes, but adjustments will need to be made.

One strength of Bond Blocks for special education is that each activity is modelled in a video with explicit teaching, specified mathematical language and consistent teaching methods. Students receive consistent teaching from both the teacher and education assistants, as well as from year to year.

As with all interventions fidelity is the key to success. However, this does not mean adjustments should not be made. The teacher will choose activities and modify them based on the profile of the individual student.

Every activity has differentiation suggestions. Read the “a little easier” section of each activity’s webpage.

One major adjustment to be made is time:

  • Tier 3 students need to do Bond Blocks at least 4 times a week, 5 is better. This allows for 4 days of repeating the target activity and 1 day to review a prior activity to maintain fluency.
  • Instead of one activity being repeated over one week the activity would be broken into smaller skills, typically two or three. For example, receptive and then expressive skills. Each skill would be repeated for one week. Therefore, each activity board would take approximately 3 weeks not one.

Yes. There are many students from Year 4 through to secondary school who still count to add and subtract. These students have missed building a robust understanding of the addition and subtraction curriculum from Years 1 to 3 covered by the Core Kit.

We designed the kit with these students in mind. Very few of the boards contain artistic images. We made sure that images that were included not childish.

The placement test means that older student can identify specifically what maths they have missed out on developing, can set goals and target that.

Download this book “Bond Blocks Out of the Box” for 24 pages of free ideas. 

Great question. Click to open link in a new tab and read the pdf “Is the Bond Blocks System Evidence Based?”

FAQ: About the Blocks

Please don’t hesitate to get in contact if you still have questions. 

Boxes with a grey handle are the original run. They contain the ten-frame and blank-five blocks. Boxes with a blue handle are the newer run. We replaced the ten-frame and blank-five blocks with extra 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 blocks. This helps if a 1 Block goes ‘missing’. It also means you can make every combination needed when bridging to twenty. The concept of the ten-frame block hasn’t been lost. It is designed into the Addition and Subtraction Core Kit activity boards.

Both Bond Blocks and Cuisenaire Rods are representational manipulatives. Therefore, neither of them are scored with individual unit lines. Bond Blocks match 2cm cubes whereas Cuisenaire Rods match 1cm cubes. They are both length-based but Bond Blocks are all one colour and have the numeral written on, whereas Cuisenaire Rods are colour-based.