There is a relatively heavy use of manipulatives even into late in the course. Teachers might be well advised to tailor the use of these to the needs of individual children, allowing those who have mastered the skills to skip the counters, mats, pictures, etc., and even advance on to the enrichment sheets provided in the teacher's manual. Lessons generally follow the same pattern. The teacher may use one or both of two optional group activities as a getting started activity. The teacher then teaches the content of the lesson and goes through some problems with the students.
Students follow the lesson by doing the two pages of exercises in their textbooks.
After this, the teacher works with the class, wrapping up the lesson and assessing their understanding and skill informally. Additional exercises are available for reteaching, extra practice or enrichment. There is relatively little guidance on when or how to use the optional introductory or follow up activities. A series of activities related to math are given to fill some of the gaps in the day, such as lining up time. Children do things like skip count, practice number facts, determine how many groups of two there are and so on.