Manipulatives have been used in many mathematics classrooms across many age groups with the aim of helping students to understand abstract concepts through concrete, kinesthetic, and visual experiences. In this paper, after we provide a background for the use of physical and virtual manipulatives in teaching and learning of mathematics, we will describe our experiences with a group of students who complete an activity with a physical manipulative which is followed by a virtual manipulative to study the concept of residuals in a linear regression. (Contains 5 figures.)