In my previous articles I have written about The Importance of Place Value, how it is the foundation for all math, and specifically about resources, strategies and methods for teaching Beginning Place Value, working with ones and tens to one hundred. Next we want to look at expanding children’s understanding of place value as they work with bigger and bigger numbers.
As I wrote earlier, the most repeated phrases I use as a math teacher are “math is all about patterns” and “big numbers work the same way small numbers do.” If children thoroughly understand the place value concepts for ones, tens, and hundreds, applying their knowledge to larger numbers is not difficult. However, as most teachers know, many children get to the upper grades without this thorough understanding and knowledge.
Marilyn Burns at Math Solutions has written an excellent article called Place Value: How To Assess Understanding. As she writes, “these interviews often produced surprising and sometimes disturbing evidence of shaky understanding.”
Teachers are often pressured to keep moving to stay on pace with curriculum when students have not yet achieved understanding. However, if students don’t understand beginning place value, you have to find a way to go back and teach this in a hands on way. Once children do understand it they will have the necessary foundation to work with the larger numbers.
Because place value follows the patterns of tens, any of the activities below are adaptable to learning different numbers of digits from hundreds, thousands, ten thousands, hundred thousands, millions, and beyond. Most are also adaptable to decimal place value, though I will write a separate poster to further dive into that concept.
Daily Activities That Build Place Value Understanding
Mr. Elementary Math has 3 Math Routines to Build Number Sense. These are 3 quick activities that can be done at any time during the school day that can easily be adapted to different levels of place value understanding. His post 3 Super Tips For Teaching Place Value also has a daily math talk routine.
Games That Develop Place Value Understanding
Marilyn Burns has some of the best place value games I have found anywhere. Her games actually develop understanding rather than just practicing a skill already learned. Here are a few of hers at different levels:
- The Game of Tens and Ones referred to on my beginning place value post, was designed to be used by 2nd graders. It is a dice game played in pairs that would also be a great review or intervention game for older kids.
- 4 Win-Win Math Games
- The Place Value Game- I think I learned this one from one of her books. The descriptions I found online expanded the game to decimal place value but it is just as useful to leave the decimals out and play the game with whole numbers. The kids I played this with wanted to play it over and over. See here for a post with pictures from Teaching In Room 6.
A few great place value games from other sources:
- Triple Digit Dare from Math Coach’s Corner- a game similar to War played with a deck of cards and adaptable to any grade level 2 and up (can include decimals or not)
- Place Value Yahtzee- this free printable game from Games 4 Gains is a favorite of my students. It has several versions- 3 digit numbers, 4 digit numbers, 6 digit numbers and decimals.
- Whack It/Stomp It– Two active games to incorporate physical movement into place value practice.
- A fun active classroom game is to give each student a large number card 0 – 9. Read a number such as “12,543” and the students arrange themselves in the proper order.
- Another active game that can be adapted to any number of digits is Place Value Toss.
Craftsy Activities for Place Value
Place Value Cups– I have made these using different numbers of cups with children of all elementary grades. They found them fun to make and use.
Place value robots are a fun art activity that can practice place value up to hundreds or thousands place.
Lessons
Exploring Ones, Tens and Hundreds With Base Ten Blocks (Marilyn Burns)
Independent Practice
Place Value Mazes from Math Geek Mama
Free Third Grade Place Value Centers from Ashleigh’s Education Journey
Books to Read Aloud
Further Resources
Here are some further resources for hands on activities to use to teach place value:
Place Value Activity Package (free 115 page file from The Numeracy Project)
Teacher Thrive: Hands On Activities for Teaching Place Value
Kim Sutton at Creative Mathematics has EXCELLENT resources. Her book Place Value With Pizazz is useful for teaching math to all grades K-6 and is one of my very favorite math resource books available anywhere.
Next article on place value: Decimal Place Value