What are some effective strategies to teach place value and base ten concepts to grade 1 students?

The manipulatives you use when teaching place value is really important. For example, it’s important to start with proportional models like bundling sticks or unifix when students are first learning their PV because they need to see that the quantity of the value doesn’t change, only the way it’s represented. MAB are not true proportional models and when used to introduce PV to young children what students may see is “I’ve taken 10 things away (10 cubes) and replaced it with one different thing (1 rod)”. This can cause confusion and is something to be mindful of.

One of my favourite tasks when initially teaching bundling is intentional interrupting. I give a student a handful of bundling sticks to count (around 30). Once they get to about 12, I interrupt them and ask a completely unrelated question (eg about football on the weekend). Then I ask them to keep counting, but they have forgotten what number they are up to so have to start again. :) After doing this a few times and causing some frustration plus a lot of laughter, I hand them some loom-bands so that they can think about how to use them strategically. The idea is to work with a partner, to bundle in whatever way they want, so that I can’t mess with them. Once they have had a try, we swap sticks to consider what worked.

Generally in kindergarten children have learned to count ten objects, one by one. Unitizing ten things as ONE thing - one group- requires a huge shift in thinking in 1st grade as it requires that children use numbers to count not only objects but also groups - and to count them both simultaneously. Numerous experiences with groupable manipulatives that can help children develop the idea of a “ten” as both a single entity and a set of ten units are necessary before moving to base ten blocks. Groupable manipulatives can include objects that can be bundled such as craft sticks or straws, snap cubes that can be used to build sticks of ten or counters and ten frames.

One thing I found helpful is base ten blocks, first step student has to understand what the word "value" stands for. Making them see that units block has value of one is important , so that they can see that when we group ten ones we get one(a) tens rod. This will help when they learn subtraction to understand what happens when we borrow, how a tens Rod breaks into ten ones in the units place.

Our use of manipulatives is most helpful when we are explicit in the use of the tool as well as our instruction; when we consider what the student might be learning from what we are using to teach them. For example, a dice face with six dots on it and the same sized dice face with one dot on it doesn’t accurately show ‘more than’ and ‘less than’; when we use buttons that are multi coloured, with various numbers of holes, various shape, various sizes the student often looks for the variations and gets distracted by the differences; Consider and ask yourself ‘what is this really teaching my student?’ THIS is explicit instruction in action - where we carefully make sure that all our instruction builds knowledge. No distractions at all.

Rekenreks are a commonly used visual model in Kindergarten and 1st grade to support early place value development and number sense. Smaller versions consist of two rows of 10 beads and larger versions have ten rows of ten beads with each row made of five red beads and five white beads. During Quick Image activities some beads are pushed across and displayed briefly before being covered. Students are then asked, “How many beads did you see? How do you know?” The hundreds chart is also an important tool for children to see patterns in our number system. Hundred chart puzzles (1-100, 901-1,000 etc.) cut into pieces for students to assemble or partially filled hundred charts to complete can build place value understanding.

Here are some strategies and game recommendations for using visual models: 1.Place Value Chart Game: Provide students with numbers and have them place these numbers in the correct position on a place value chart. 2. "Who’s the Greatest?" Game: Give students random numbers and have them compare these numbers using the >, <, and = symbols. These games help students better understand numbers and make learning more engaging.

Finding opportunities for students to choral count as a number talk strategy, while recording it on the board - in an intentional manner- and then share noticing and wonder's can help them begin to notice patterns in our base-10 system. In addition making sure we're providing them with a variety of experiences in counting forward and backward (not starting on just the "friendly numbers), and operating over decades in small increments (ie. 32 - 4 or 59 + 3)) to focus on how numbers change, shift and can be broken apart and put back together.

The Base Ten Game (Pengelly, 1991) is an effective way for students to develop an understanding of the structure of the number system and to learn to operate on numbers using this structure. The rules for the most basic version are simple: Roll 2 dice, add the numbers shown, and collect that quantity of craft sticks to add to the place value mat. The only rule is that there can be no more than nine items in any one column. Once there are more than nine sticks in the units column, ten sticks are combined to make a bundle of ten sticks which is then placed in the tens column. The remaining sticks are left in the units column. When there are more than nine bundles of ten in the tens column, these are combined to make a bundle of 10 tens.

I always start teaching place value using the trading game. It’s always my go to because it reinforces the concept of place value so brilliantly. As students are working their way through this game you can throw in some additional activities that reinforces other important aspects of place value. For example stop the class after 10 minutes of play, get students to write their number on a post it note and ask them to make a human number line.

Picture books can provide visual representations of mathematical concepts, making abstract ideas more concrete and accessible for students. Some favorites for place value include How Big is a Million? by Anna Milbourne, A Million Dots by Andrew Clements, and A Place for Zero by Angeline Sparagna LoPresti.