Activity Centres

For: Chapter 8 – Extending Number Sense: Place Value

Facilitators: Shannon Collins, Kaitlyn Kuipers, Stacy Shim, Erin Weaver

“Without place value, we would get no place with numbers.”– Carl Friedrich Gauss, Mathematician pg 161

Things You Should Know About:

Four characteristics of number system (page 162):

  1. The Role of Zero
  2. Additive Property of Numbers
  3. A Base of Ten
  4. Place Value
  • Place Value Mats
  • Base-ten Blocks, Bean Sticks, and other Manipulatives
  • Proportional vs Non-proportional Manipulatives

Main Points /
  • Websites with virtual manipulatives provide students the opportunity to freely explore math concepts
  • Students can work with supplies they usually wouldn’t be able to take out of the classroom
  • Students can use links at home as a homework aid (if they have internet access)

Activities / NOTE: Be familiar with the application before letting your students use it!
Math Forum Website:
This website has a large selection of online manipulatives that are categorized by Grade and Topic.
Math Topics > Select Grade > Select Topic
Explore some of the examples I found interesting:
1. Grade 1 > Base 10 Blocks: Exploring Whole Decimal Numbers with Blocks
2. Grade 2 > Chip Abacus (Reinforces the idea of exchange or borrowing in place-values)
3. Grade 2 > Number Grids (Online versions of a hundreds chart)
*These are learning tools more so than games
National Library of Virtual Manipulatives:
Resources: Base 10 Blocks, Abacus, Chip Abacus, Sieve of Eratosthenes (hundreds chart)
Teacher’s Connection:
See how a first grade teacher incorporated counting in multiples of tens to days in the school year!
Extras:
A fun interactive game that practices making numbers (1-999) using the base 10 blocks
Main Points /
  • Calculators can help reinforce the importance of place value concepts and pattern recognition
  • Calculators can provide additional understanding by displaying results of counting by ones, tens, hundreds, and thousands and contributes to a better understanding of large numbers
  • Students can often work on these concepts at home with a calculator as well so activities are not limited to the classroom

Activities / Wipe Out–is a place value game involving either addition or subtraction using a calculator. The goal is to change (wipe out) a predetermined digit by subtracting or adding a number. This activity can involve two people taking turns entering a number and naming a specific digit the other player must change to 0. A player earns a point by changing the digit to 0 on the first try. For example player A enters 431, the 3 is to be wiped out. To do this you must subtract 30, leaving the other digits unchanged = 401.
Counting with a Calculator- Count by hundreds to develop place value and pattern recognition. This could be suitable for grades 2-3. Guess which target will be hit if the rule is counting by one hundred. Then check your answers; begin at the start number, add 100 and see if your target was correct!

Things to take away:

WIPE OUT RECORD

Name:

Entered / Wiped Out / Keys Pressed / Display / Score

Main Points / -These activities show how learning can be fun and the use of manipulatives can make an activity more engaging.
-Manipulatives give a hands-on approach of how to separate place values through the base-ten blocks as well as hundred charts and a fun interactive game.
-Number charts and manipulatives create a “fun” learning environment for children to grow and want to learn mathematics.
Activities / -Using base-ten blocks with a place-value mat, show grouping by 10’s and 100’s. Specifically to see that each group of 10’s or 100’s has a specific reason to making a complete number within the place-value mat. For example:
H / T / O
1 / 2 / 3
This shows that there is 1 group of 100’s, 2 groups of 10’s and three 1’s left over. Making 123.
-Hundred charts (1-100) are used to provide opportunities for counting as well as doing mental computations (p.168). Hundred charts eliminate the common problem of students starting at 0 as a number and confusing their results (p.168).
-Hundred charts activities, ask children to count forward 10 spaces from a number and tell what they find is similar and different with that number; do the same going backwards 10 spaces.
-Cut out a piece of paper that will cover a couple numbers in an “L” shape and lay it on the chart. Ask the children how they will find the hidden answers?
-Explain the patterns from the hundreds chart and how you would find a number. IE. A=N+10-2 or A=N+10-3
-Model three digit numbers on the 100’s, 10’s and 1’s base-ten blocks and get the children to fill in their dart boards according to what is shown by the teacher. This will help the students to think about what they see and relate it to the place value it represents on the dart boards.
Things to take away / -Manipulatives can be used in many different ways within a lesson. Through demonstrations, guided learning and also individual work.
-Introducing fun games to play with mathematics will engage the student to want to be there and learn. Of course gearing it to the correct age group.
-Asking questions about how to use the hundreds board, does not only represent 100 but also the different groupings within it, as well as how to determine where to find an unknown number with only certain variables.

** see attached handouts for activity boards

Main
Points / These books “provide real-world examples of larger numbers and provide connections to representing their place value symbolically.” (page 177)
Using literature, teachers can help students get a better concept of place value as well as the abstract idea of large numbers: one million, one billion, one trillion.
Also, children’s books can provide several excellent opportunities to practice place value within the context of a story. Applying meaning to numbers is always helpful for students.
Activities / Watch How Much is a Million by David M. Schwarz. Reading Rainbow Video.
This story helps students gain a more concrete understanding of the very large numbers million, billion, and trillion. Using the video is great because on a big screen, more students can see the pictures.
Read A Million Dots by Andrew Clements
Using Place Value Mats, write out various large numbers that appear in the book. Find these numbers by asking about the corresponding facts. Ask students which page/fact/dot is their favourite. Can they write it out on a place value mat? You could also try adding different number facts together, and writing these sums on place value mats.
Read Earth Day – Hooray! by Stuart J. Murphy
A variety of activities are offered at the back of the book:
1. read through the story at point out how the cans are bundled. Discuss how 10 ones equals 10, 10 tens equals 100…etc.
2. retell the story with your own numbers of bags. Have the children write these numbers and keep track of how many cans are collected
3. write down a 3-digit number and have the child draw bundles of cans to represent the number
4. paper plates: write digits 0-9 and then turn them over, have students pick 4 to turn face up.
Ask: What is the biggest number you could make? What is the smallest number? Discuss place values of the numbers created.
Things to take away / Book Suggestions:
Earth Day – Hooray! By Stuart J. Murphy
A Million Dots by Andrew Clements
How Much is a Million? by David M. Schwartz (Also on video)
If You Made a Million by David M. Schwartz (WARNING: deals with money, so examples and pictures would need to be put in a Canadian context by the teacher
Activity suggestions for A Million Dots
Activity suggestions Earth Day – Hooray!
Place Value Poem transcribed from Reading Rainbow Video.