5 Competitive Place Value Partner Activities for Students

A little healthy competition may be exactly what you need to get your students to understand place value! Place value can be a tricky concept. It’s true. But when you allow students to work together, amazing things happen. 

Things like:

• Students learn from each other by sharing strategies and perspectives.
• Students stay engaged and motivated to practice place value concepts. 
• Building student confidence in their abilities by practicing with a peer rather than alone.
• Active participation using hands-on activities.
• ​​Teamwork, communication, and the ability to collaborate effectively.

I could go on and on, but I’d rather show you some amazing place value partner games to help your students unpack place value concepts with a partner and encourage students to think critically and deepen comprehension.

Comparing Numbers Place Value Partner Game

Comparing numbers is an essential foundational skill, usually one of the first math concepts we dive into at the beginning of the year. In Number Showdown, students work together to compare numbers to see who gets the greater number!

Here’s how to play:

• Partner 1 spins the spinners to build their number. 
• Partner 2 does the same. 
• Students fill out the HTO chart with their given numbers. 
• Students work together to compare the numbers. 
• The partner with the greatest number is the winner of the round!

The more students play the more engaged in the lesson they become thanks to the sense of mystery from spinning for numbers. It’s a guessing game as students anticipate who will have the greatest number and win the round.

But underneath, they are improving their number sense!

Numbers Before and After Place Value Partner Game

Understanding how to order numbers is a crucial step in the place value process. Students can work together to find a number’s place in a lineup. In Before and After, students will build numbers to find the numbers before and after them.

Here’s how to play:

• Partners work together to spin the spinners to build their number. 
• Students use the HTO chart to record their number. 
• Partner one finds the number that comes directly before that number. 
• Partner two finds the number that comes after. 
• During the next round, they can switch roles!

Even or Odd Place Value Partner Game

Explaining the difference between even and odd numbers doesn’t always go down easily. A fun way to make it stick is by having students embody the numbers. What do I mean by that? 

In the game Even or Odd, partners choose to be on the odd or even side as they use spinners to find and label numbers accordingly.

Here’s how to play:

• One student needs to be ODD. 
• One student needs to be EVEN. 
• Partners take turns spinning the spinners to build their number in the HTO chart. 
• If the number is odd, the ODD partner gets a point. 
• If the number is even, the EVEN partner gets a point.

What I love about this activity is the incentive for students. Figuring out if numbers are even or odd becomes a game as they hope to get a number that gains them a point.

They will have no problem practicing this over and over!

Spin and Order Up Place Value Partner Game

Thinking critically is a huge benefit of students working together. Something challenging like ordering numbers on a number line becomes easier to manage when you have a helping hand. 

In Spin and Order Up, students must collaborate to place numbers, and it takes deep thought to ensure the number line is ordered properly.

Here’s how to play:

• Partners take turns spinning for numbers. 
• Students circle the numbers that they land on. 
• Partners determine where to place the three numbers on the open number line.

Working to order numbers opens up communication between the pairs. They have to find clear ways to express their opinions. In the meantime, students are learning the foundations for other math concepts.

Number Puzzles Place Value Partner Game

Puzzles are perfect brain work. In math, students can use puzzles to practice minus or plus one, and minus or plus 10 to various numbers. Rather than providing a set of numbers, students can pair up and roll dice to find their anchor number. 

Working together allows students to use their strengths to help one another. For example, if one is stronger in addition, they can use that strength to help the other student and vice versa.

Here’s how to play Number Puzzles:

• Students take turns rolling a number cube to get a number. 
• That number goes in the center of the puzzle. 
• Partners take turns filling out the number puzzle. 
• Since there are four puzzle pieces, each student can take the lead on two of the spaces!

Students take ownership of their work by taking the lead on a component in the game, like the puzzle spaces mentioned above. Then, they can work together to check their work and have opportunities to fix any mistakes!

For more engaging place value partner activities, check out 5 other place value partner games for the classroom!

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