hi...i'm new to third grade, i taught kinder for 3 years and was moved to third grade about a week and a half before school started. So, we are teaching place value right now and i just graded my first set of papers on this concept...exactly half of my class failed the assignment!! does anyone have any great ideas for making such an abstract concept stick into the brains of third graders?? thanks for ANY help you can give!!
Third graders should start with base 10 blocks when learning place value. Use a work mat with the place value positions at the top, and the base 10 blocks to create numbers. I also use them for adding and subtracting with regrouping.
kteelou... my daughter is also learning place value and having a tough time or it as well.. any suggestions for parents on how to help. I've made all sorts of charts and she still doesn't seem to get it to well..
corney... i may not be the best person to ask about place value, but in generaly the best thing a parent can do is just help them practice, practice, practice. Sometimes the best thing for them to do is to just do it over and over again. I would just keep having her make a place value chart on every single problem she does and that should help a little. hope that helps...
I wish I knew how to post a file.. I have one that I created to help with place value. She used it this morning to help study for her test.. But she is still struggling with it.. especially breaking it down to word form and expanded form.
Use construction paper folded in half the long way to make place value pockets. I use masking tape to divide the columns. Then cut strips of paper for students to make numbers for each column. Then they use these to sort and practice the different values. It helps students to visualize that though the number 7 is the same digit it has a different value depending on the different columns that it is placed in. I did this for my 1st graders and it really helped with understanding the concept. I have it on my lesson plans for Tuesday now that I am in 3rd grade. It's easy enough to make that you can send it home for them to continue practicing as well.
I love the idea of the construction paper mats. My students are really struggling with the idea of place value but the math assumes that they know the concept so I am struggling. Since it is my first year and my first time using Saxon I am going to teach a "hands-on" lesson on Tuesday using the base-ten blocks to discuss tens and ones at this point. It will be something that we revisit as we get to addition and subtraction with regrouping and 100s and 1000s place value.
Please don't forget that none of these kids have been studying place value during the summer break, so of course they didn't do well on the test. Anything they learned last year may have to be retaught a bit before their memories come back
My daughters ESE Teacher is going to send home a game she made to learn place value.. hopefully that will help.. Thanks for everyone's input.
Another idea that a teacher had on my team to teach to periods was to make a ones house and a thousands house. We used library pockets for the hundred, ten and one place of each period. Then a blade of grass to separate the two houses (the comma) it is a great visualization. Then using index cards we put a different number in each pocket. Student then have to identify the various values of each number and write the number in expanded form. Another idea is making arrow cards with various numbers in different place values. When they are stacked on each other with the arrows facing the same direction they are in standard form. When the cards are separated they are in expanded form. Finally, one last thing that my team is using is Thinking maps. We are making a circle map that is divided into 4 sections as a visual to model the different forms (word form, expanded form, manipulatives, standard form) It has really helped with the terminology aspect and understanding what is expected for each form.
I've decided to give my daughter one, hundred thousand number a night (654,321) and have her read me the number using the comma as her indicator to say thousand before she says the rest of the number, other wise she would just read the numbers as numbers. Once she can do that with ease then I will have her break that number down in expanded form (600,000+50,000+4,000+300+20+1) until she fully understands that concept then I will do the same for word form. I have found getting her to understand the number itself is the key.
That is a great way to do it, corney. You are absolutely right that 'understanding the number' is the key. Place value may be the most important, fundamental concept for math in the early grades. It's not just about knowing which digit is in a certain place or identifying the place value positions. It is very important for later work with decimals, of course, and powers of ten, too. It is very easy to quickly breeze through the brief amount of attention paid to expanded form in the texts/workbooks. Don't do that. Demonstrate it with concrete examples (base 10 blocks), pictures and cut-outs of base 10 blocks, examples of 'ten times bigger' in books or pictures (if you can find them).
it's required that they know how to write the numbers in expanded and word form, they are tested on it. Her first test they were given the number in each form and had to write it two different ways.. needless to say she bombed and got a 35 on the whole test. The answers she did get correct had nothing to do with place value. After reviewing the test I could see where she was missing the point. So I've decided to take it one step at a time. However your idea of visual aides is good in fact I'm going to make a 100 block grid, that is what they use in class.. it will help her to see 1,000 vs. 10,000 vs. 100,000
At our school, starting in 2nd grade they learn a place value song. If you're interested, I'll find out what cd it is on and you can try to search it to find it for free.
As as I sub, I never got to sub a 3rd grade until recently and was just one day. Now, I am subbing 3rd grade and today, we did subtracting via Mental Math. I was going to go over ht elesson again tomorrow but now that I have read this forum, I thinl I should go over the place vale first in case there is any kid who doens't know about place value well. All of them probably need a review (in the snese of knowing the one's place and twn's place, etc.) anyway. So, if I may ask, what is work mat and what is base 10 blocks? Is that somehting I'd be able to find in the classroom?
A work mat would just be a page, sometimes laminated, for working on with manipulatives. In this case, it would have the place value positions marked across the top. You would use it with the Base 10 blocks. Most classrooms have those. There is a large cube that is made up of 1,000 small units. The small unit is a 1, the long unit is a 10, the flat unit is 100. Often, old ones are wooden, newer ones are plastic. You use them on the mat to 'build' numbers. You can demonstrate how you shift from the ones to the tens place value position (regrouping) when you reach 10 in the ones place.
