Building Numbers (Place Value)

Our classroom has been working hard on building our numbers to 120 in hopes to gain a better understanding of place value.

The Setup

It all started a couple of weeks ago.  I hung up the caution tape, handed out hard hats and went over procedures.  My students were so excited.

Building Numbers

We started building all together, adding a bean then writing the number.  Once we made it to ten beans, we built a ten stick.  My little builders continued to build.  The room was so quiet because they were so into building their numbers.

We worked on this for a little over a week.  At the end of each building session, we fill out a check-in form.  This is a way to practice their understanding of place value, 10 more/less and 1 more/less.

Celebrating

My goal is always to have all of my students make it to 120.  Many of my builders make it within a couple of days and continue to go higher.  When they do make it to 120, I ring a cow bell and we celebrate their achievement as a class.  Then I take their picture and they sign their name on our poster.  Once the whole class has made it, we take home our hat and building supplies (recording paper and bean sticks).  My little builders love to take their paper home and unroll it!  Here is a picture of my son from last year.

We had a blast learning about place value with our builder’s club!  Now we will move onto games that help reinforce these place value concepts.  These activities are all part of the Builder’s Club.  This place value pack can be found at TPT or The Teacher Bag.