A Place Value Game Your Students Will Beg You to Play!
Kids-love-to-play-games and that's why this place value game is one that your students will beg you to play!
I absolutely borrowed this game idea from another teacher after seeing it done in her classroom. Seriously, when I saw her students happily playing this game - I couldn't help it!
They were having so much fun ----- and their grasp of place value was amazing!
1. Students are in partner groups and the teacher is the "banker".
2. The teacher displays a number such as 342.
3. The teacher gives each group 4 hundreds mats from a base ten block set.
4. The students will have to go to the bank to exchange their base ten blocks in order to make the number displayed.
5. Student pairs discuss what they need to exchange. Hundreds for tens, and tens for ones.
6. One student from the group takes one base ten block at a time to the banker for exchange. The student has to tell the teacher what they are exchanging:
7. That student goes back to the partner and builds the number with the pieces they have.
7. Now Partner B takes a 10 strip to the banker and ask for 10 ones.
8. Partner B goes back and they add the 2 ones needed to make 342.
Very simple game.
It's the discussions that are taking place that blow your mind!
You can hear them working out what to exchange and why. It's magical!
This sequence can be repeated several times with different numbers OR used as a warmup before the math lesson.
But, your students will beg you to play this place value game - they love it so much!
Next week, I'll show you how to take the skills your students learn playing this game and apply to subtraction with regrouping!
In the meantime, if you need to know a strategy for teaching students how to use place value when adding multi-digit numbers - this post will help!
If you need to come back to this blog post later - pin this NOW!
I absolutely borrowed this game idea from another teacher after seeing it done in her classroom. Seriously, when I saw her students happily playing this game - I couldn't help it!
They were having so much fun ----- and their grasp of place value was amazing!
Here's how to play:
1. Students are in partner groups and the teacher is the "banker".
2. The teacher displays a number such as 342.
3. The teacher gives each group 4 hundreds mats from a base ten block set.
4. The students will have to go to the bank to exchange their base ten blocks in order to make the number displayed.
5. Student pairs discuss what they need to exchange. Hundreds for tens, and tens for ones.
6. One student from the group takes one base ten block at a time to the banker for exchange. The student has to tell the teacher what they are exchanging:
"I would like to exchange this hundreds mat for 10 tens.",
-or-
"I would like to exchange this ten strip for 10 ones."
**Having students exchange only one piece at a time keeps the line for the banker shorter and quicker. It also gives each partner a turn going to the bank.
7. That student goes back to the partner and builds the number with the pieces they have.
7. Now Partner B takes a 10 strip to the banker and ask for 10 ones.
8. Partner B goes back and they add the 2 ones needed to make 342.
Very simple game.
It's the discussions that are taking place that blow your mind!
You can hear them working out what to exchange and why. It's magical!
This sequence can be repeated several times with different numbers OR used as a warmup before the math lesson.
But, your students will beg you to play this place value game - they love it so much!
Next week, I'll show you how to take the skills your students learn playing this game and apply to subtraction with regrouping!
In the meantime, if you need to know a strategy for teaching students how to use place value when adding multi-digit numbers - this post will help!
If you need to come back to this blog post later - pin this NOW!