Ideas for Place Value Lessons
Enrich your place value lessons with these kinesthetic activities. Make math fun and engaging!
What Is Place Value?
We form all numbers with the digits 0-9.
Each digit in a number has a value based on its position.
Consider the following numbers:
9
90
900
9000
In the first number, the digit 9 is in the ones place. It has a value of 9 ones, or 9.
In the second number, the digit 9 is in the tens place. It has a value 9 tens, or 90.
The third and fourth numbers have a 9 in the hundreds and thousands places, respectively. The 9 has a value of 9 hundreds (900) and 9 thousands (9000).
We write numbers in a decimal system. The word “decimal” comes from a Latin word meaning “of a tenth part.”
Every time a digit moves one space to the left or right, it is multiplied or divided by a factor of ten.
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The Importance of Teaching Place Value
Understanding place value helps kids decipher what numbers mean.
When you move to multi-digit numbers, understanding place value helps you to properly express and interpret numbers.
Place value is also pivotal in addition with carrying, subtraction with borrowing, and decimals.
You can teach place value by explaining the concept orally and using the whiteboard, but if you incorporate hands-on activities, the lesson will stick.
Hands-On Activities for Place Value Lessons
Try some of these activities to reinforce the concepts in your place value lessons.
Place Value Bingo
Make your own BINGO cards with various multi-digit numbers.
Call out a clue that indicates place value, such as “Do you have a number with 5 in the tens place?”
Place Value Digital Escape Rooms
Digital escape rooms are wonderful ways to reinforce math concepts. Students can complete them independently or on teams.
Try two free virtual escape rooms: Place Value Virtual Escape Room and Decimals Place Value Escape Room.
Place Value War Card Game
This is variation of the classic card game “War.”
Students draw two (or three) cards each and arrange them to make the largest number possible with those digits.
Whoever has the larger number gets all the cards from that round.
Base 10 Manipulatives
Use manipulatives to show place value. (Like this set of Base 10 manipulatives.)
Students can touch and feel their way to mastering the concept of place value.
Human Place Value
Make signs out of posterboard with the digits 0-9.
Have student volunteers hold up the signs.
Move them around to show how the position of a digit affects its value.
Place Value Floor Puzzle
Use sticky notes to make an interlocking rubber tile floor mat into a place value puzzle.
Write a number like 349 on a sticky note and affix it to one tile.
Then, write a matching value of “300 + 40 + 9” on a sticky note attached to another tile.
Do this for all the tiles and let students find the matching pairs and lock them together.
Place Value Scavenger Hunt
Your classroom is filled with numbers. They are on doors, signs, books, and more.
Give your kids a scavenger hunt list based on place value. Your list could include items like:
- a number where 3 is in the tens place
- a number where the hundreds digit is lower than the ones digit
- a number where the ones digit is 6 or 7
Place Value Sticky Notes
When demonstrating your place value lessons on the board, consider using different colored sticky notes for the ones, tens, and hundreds places.
This allows students to see the difference in value concretely.
Dance to the Place Value
Assign a specific dance move to each place value. For example:
- Ones: Staying Alive finger point
- Tens: the floss
- Hundreds: “stir the soup”
Write a number on the board, like 567.
If you say “seven,” then the students note it is in the ones position and they do seven Staying Alive finger points.
If you say “six,” they floss six times.
Likewise, if you say “five,” they stir the soup five times.
Once they get the hang of this, you can turn on some classroom-friendly tunes and dance to different numbers.
Place Value Scrap Art
This simple art project helps reinforce the concept of place value.
Choose three colors of paper (for example, red, yellow, and blue). Have students tear the red paper into tiny scraps (dime-sized).
They should tear the yellow paper into medium scraps (quarter-sized).
They should tear the blue paper into larger scraps (like the size of a donut hole).
Then have them pick a three-digit number. Write the number on a piece of paper, taking up almost the whole sheet.
Then, glue the tiny yellow scraps onto the digit in the ones place, the medium red scraps tens digit, and the large blue scraps on the hundred digit.
Kinesthetic Math Activities for Place Value Lessons
With these hands-on activities, you can cement the concept of place value into the minds of your students.
They will also have fun in the process!
