I am always looking for new activities and manipulatives to help students fully understand the crucial skill of place value. It is essential that students understand the meaning of a number and are able to decompose each number. One of the best ways to help students construct meaning of place value is through appropriate, hands-on activities. Here are five easy ways to make place value fun and engaging for all learners.
It is crucial to provide students the opportunity to build a visual representation of a number using Base Ten Blocks. The Base Ten Place Value Mats are the perfect manipulative to use in whole group, small group, and during center time. Each mat is created out of a very durable, laminated material that will last for years. Eventually, I like to move my students from using Base Ten Blocks to drawing a visual representation using a dry erase marker.
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My students have loved completing their very own Place Value Journal every morning. As students are working, I quietly walk around to assess which students are grasping the skill easily and who needs re-teaching during our small group time. After each student is finished, we go over the section of the day as a whole group and connect to our math talk lesson of the day. To create an extension, students normally write the number as many ways as possible on the side of each activity.
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Once my students have a good understanding of place value and how to write a number three different ways, it is time for them to work on the skill independently. The Self-Checking Place Value Puzzles are the perfect addition to math rotations. Students love to review the expanded form, word form, and base 10 form using these self-checking puzzles. This set of puzzles teaches numbers up to the thousands to help push on-level or above-level students.
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Adding dice to any math lesson is always a win! Students are eager and engaged when a learning activity feels like a game. The Place Value Dice set includes high-quality, multi-sided dice in bright colors. Each set includes seven sets of each place value up to 1,000,000s. My students had a blast rolling each dice to create a three-digit number. I loved how easy it was to have students practice writing the number different ways on a dry erase board. The dice make it very easy to differentiate any lesson based on student needs!
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Who wouldn't love to practice place value by creating an adorable Place Value Addition Mosaic Monster? Not only does this hands-on activity help students grasp the concept of place value, it is also a great review for basic addition. After the monsters were completed we took a little bit of time to write a short story about our new friend!
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