It always felt like all the stars had aligned just for me when I found a complete lesson plan already created with everything I needed. Do you know what I mean? Of course, I would adjust the lesson plans to fit the needs of my classroom, but having that starting point helped save me a tremendous amount of time.
Now that I have created resources, I try to have as many of those plans ready to go for you. Today, I’ll share a FREE and complete place value lesson plan to fill a day of learning. Plus, I’ll give you a couple of extra extension activities that your students will enjoy!
To start things off, let’s look at a structured place value plan that includes clear place value lesson objectives and hands-on activities. Your student objective for the lesson I’ll share with you is, “I can use standard, word, and expanded forms to represent numbers.” Keep that in mind while looking through the following place value activities!
I like to start with a simple sorting activity during my mini-lesson when introducing students to the correct way to write number words. This allows students to see examples and non-examples of number words.
To get students involved, give each student a stick with thumbs-up and thumbs-down symbols. Once you have shown a number word example to students, they will either hold up a thumbs up or thumbs down based on whether they believe the number word is written correctly.
This is also an effective way to check for understanding in the classroom.
Next, let’s look at a very BRIGHT way to practice writing numbers in different forms. Students create a sun as the base for this place value lesson.
In the center of the sun, students will provide different representations of one specific number. On the rays, students will count on from the focus number. You can choose a skip counting pattern, or simply have the students count on by ones from the starting point.
This free activity not only reinforces place value and number forms but also builds number sense and skip counting.
Moving on to our interactive notebooks, for this place value activity, students will roll number cubes to create a number. This number goes on the outside of the flap. Then, students spin the sun spinner to see what they should focus on for that number.
They may need to determine if the number is even or odd. Or, they may need to write the expanded form or word form.
Lastly, they might land on drawing the number in base ten blocks. No matter what they land on, students will be practicing the objective of representing numbers in different ways.
To extend place value objectives into the fall, incorporate a seasonal theme with place value apple activities. Students can build an apple tree out of base ten blocks, or create an apple to show number representations.
This would make for a beautiful fall bulletin board in the classroom!
For more apple/fall themed place value activities, check out our Apple Math Craft Place Value Activities, Fall Worksheets & Apple Bulletin Board!
Let’s wrap up this place value lesson idea with an activity I shared over a decade ago. This personal and engaging activity can be used any time of the year and will make students feel very special!
Students build their names using base ten block printables. Each letter of their name consists of hundreds, tens, or ones. After building their names, students will count the blocks used to determine the total value.
This free activity helps students apply place value concepts to something personally meaningful!
Hey, y’all! My name is Amy Lemons and I am passionate about providing students with both engaging and effective standards-based Math and ELA lessons.
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