Curricula and Learning Links - Math
Ideas for Teaching Place Value
Here are some creative ways to get the concept of place value across.
Cut down three 20-oz water bottles. Tape them together, and then label them "Ones," "Tens," and "Hundreds." Get 9 popsicle sticks. Counted them into the "Ones" bottle. When the tenth one is added, bundle them up with a rubber band and move to the "Tens" bottle. Then bundle ten "Tens" and let the children move to the "Hundreds."
Draw pictures to show that only one digit can live in each bottle (or house). Because a "10" is 2-digits, it cannot live in one house, but must live in two ("Ones" and "Tens"). There is only ONE bundle and there are no more "ones," and that is what makes a 10. Once they understood that, we went over lots of different numbers. - Faith
Another "house" method: Each digit has it's own house. The ones live in the One's House, the tens the Ten's House and the hundreds in the Hundred's House (etc.) Using manipulatives and a piece of paper, (a big one, or more than one put together) I would draw the houses on the paper, write a number somewhere on the page, like 364, and put the manipulatives in each house with a 3 written below the Hundred's House, a 6 under the Ten's House, etc. For the manipulatives, obviously, there would be three "hundred squares" in the Hundred's House, six "ten blocks" in the Ten's House, etc.
When I taught how to carry and borrow, I would set up all the manipulatives like this, one set on top of another set representing each number in the equation. If in the One's House they were supposed to subtract 4 from 2, the "two manipulative" would get up and hop over to the Ten's house and ask if they could BORROW a Ten. (My kids always loved when I did this, which was usually with a high pitched squeaky voice.) The Ten always obliged and came over to "visit" the One's House, leaving one less ten in the Ten's House. (I show them what this looks like on paper with an actual equation as I do it.)
It works the same way with carrying. When there is a 6 and a 7 to add in the One's House, you go, "Uh oh! There are more than 9 One's living in this little house! We'll have to send 10 of them to the Ten's House and leave the other 3 in the One's House. (Because there can't be more than 9 one's in the One's House. You can say there are only 9 bedrooms or whatever.) - TN Lizzie
Here's another method from Michele's Math
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