Wednesday, August 30, 2017

Beginning of the Year with Place Value!


I was lucky enough to partner up with Mrs. J's Resources and Kelly Malloy (An Apple for the teacher) to help bring you some great place value ideas!

Place Value Ideas to Start Your Year!
As the beginning of the year approaches (or has started for some), we look at lessons and units to help start off the year. One of the units is place value. Why? It helps students understand the meaning of the numbers they are writing and using. Without this foundational knowledge students can struggle in regrouping, understanding expanded notation, speaking, and writing the word form of standard numbers. Included below are some collected ideas and units to help strengthen students place value understanding.

Place Value Houses Project Idea Mrs. Hansens Helpfuls
One strategy I use to help build the skills for a strong place value foundation is to create Place Value Houses. This project allows students to visually see how numbers are grouped into “threes” and allows students to practice number formation, speaking, and writing. They are simple to make. Just draw houses with three bedrooms a piece. Label the house bedrooms ones, tens, and hundreds. Then name the houses hundreds, thousands, millions, etc. Students even love to make it look like a neighborhood. Students can also make number cards to fit into the houses.




Other practice is also available through self-checking task cards. Students can decipher expanded notation and word form to make the standard numbers. Students look at the task card and then build the number on the Place Value Houses. To check students simply flip over the card. Once the Place Value Houses are built, these task cards can make a great center!

Interested but don’t want to make them from scratch? No problem, try these products:




Math Mysteries Mrs. Js Resources
Revisiting and building on place value knowledge is a necessary task to set up students for success to learn new math concepts later on in the year. The place value math mystery “Case of The Puzzled Pirate” has been built as a fun activity to practice and consolidate a variety of place value skills in one. Its design for different levels allows for you to choose the best option for your students. Choose an earlier (or easier) grade level to refresh students before starting a new Place value unit, or choose the level that meets your standards to review content learned at the end of a unit. The added factor of the mystery will help students try and persevere with challenging sections, and will help you gauge just how much your students know (or don’t!)


Click the link to view the bonus free video hook that comes with "Case of The Puzzled Pirate":




Practice Makes Perfect! Kelly Malloy
Once your students have mastered the place value skills required for your grade level, you will want to make sure to practice and review them so that they don’t lose them! I Have, Who Has games are a great way to practice skills in the classroom. They are a great whole group activity that can be used for review, test prep, fluency, listening skills, and mental math. My students and I love using these games to review our skills and place value is no exception.
I have a special freebie Place Value I Have Who has game that you can download here.


I also have Daily Math Review Resources for 1st through 5th grade that not only review place value, but other skills as well!  You can find them here: