Place Value Fun - No Worksheets Required!

I LOVE teaching place value - there are just so many things you can do to make it hands-on, engaging and fun!

Some of my students needed a little extra TLC when it came to place value.  I needed some activities where I could work one on one in guided math with struggling students and I also needed some other activities where my students could review some skills in canters.  I also wanted to do something that was worksheet free!

#becausemathdoesnthavetobeaworksheet

Build it was a hit!

 I put all the numbers in a basket.  Students pull a number card, place it in the square and start to build it.  You can use ones and tens blocks but I used play-dough.  (Why not?)

Next, I have comparing numbers.

 I put all the cards in a little bucket.  (I just used the same ones from Build it).  Students choose a card and put it in the first box.  Then they choose another card and put it in the second box.  Then they write the correct symbol in the circle.

The county wanted us to shy away from using the terms "alligator mouth" and wanted us to use the terms greater than and less than.  So some of my friends grabbed my anchor charts from my Crazy Comparisons pack to help them remember.

I felt like this center was utter chaos with all the cards spread all over the floor but my friends LOVED it.

 They really struggled counting and circling groups of ten.  Some of them would circle just one row (thinking it was ten), some of them would have circles all over the page.  This activity really helped them to circle sets of tens in an "odd"circle format.  Then they had to record how many tens, ones and total.

These word problems also threw my friends through a loop!  It has them make sets of ten, with leftovers and count the total.  (Yes, I know that word problem says "car" instead of jar.  That's why I always take stuff I make for a test run :)

To help them count, I used pin wheel pasta that had been spray painted white.  I usually use this as "snow" but they were the perfect size for the jars.  So I put them out and told the students that they were Mexican wedding cookies :)

I also have activities where my students have to count on.  They pull a card and read the number at the top.  Then they have to see what they already have.  Last, they have to add ones and tens to make the number.

 These pieces were all over the floor too.

#justbreathe

So those are just a few of the activities that I have started using for place value fun.  I'd love to hear about some of the things you're using in your classroom!