Place Value Partner Style

I'll start with two questions. 

1. Do you know Laura Candler from 
Teaching Resources?
Or maybe you know her from her blog, 
called Corkboard Connections?

Or maybe you know her from her Facebook page?

2. Do you remember the game Battleship from your childhood?

(Ok, so I can't count. . . that was 4 questions!)

Laura has kindly allowed me the honor of previewing one of her activities. I picked her Place Value Partners. Some of my students still struggle with this concept, so I knew it would be a "HIT" 

(Just like in Battleship!)

There are only 29 pages to copy. It's available in color or black & white. It is very easy to assemble with clear directions for the students too. And of course, it WAS fun and educational for my students!

If you would like to pick this up for yourself, 

you can see it at her store.

Or you can click on this picture above to go to her store, too.

Let me show you some of the pictures of my students involved in this activity.

First I glued the place value board to a file folder. There are two different boards. A receiver and a sender. Each board conveniently has the directions on it. To the top of the file folders I glued the papers that explain what the standard form, expanded form and word form might look like. On the other file folder I glued the words that are used to write the names for the numbers.

The students put their number tiles in order beside them so that they are easy to find. The Sender creates a number, then recites that number to their partner who is the Receiver. The numbers are made in two different colors so they are easy to separate when needed. 

Can you see how he is watching his partner and trying to listen carefully?

This is where it reminds me of Battleship. 

The boards can not be seen by the partners and the partners really have

 to listen to hear what the Sender has said. 

One folder has places up to hundreds, one goes to thousands, one has places up to millions, one is a decimal variation from tens to hundredths, and the last is a more advanced board from thousands to thousandths!

For my 2nd graders we used the hundreds and thousands. 

But for one group I challenged them with the millions!

Once they are finished making and sharing their numbers, they compare them to see if they got it right. 

If it is right, BRAVO! If it is not right, they can take some time to see why they are not alike.

The next thing they do is write down the different forms of the number they just made. I love that Laura has made it so comfortable for students to search for their answers with the word list and the examples that are right in front of them.

There are two recording sheets that you can choose to use. One has longer lines for the bigger numbers.

Once they are done with the writing, they start over by switching the file folders around. So now a different person is the Sender and a different person is the Receiver.

My kids loved this. It was a great way to learn or review place value, writing numbers in words, and expanding numbers too.

Thank you Laura for such a wonderful opportunity. Your activities rock and now my kids do too.

Patty