place value Archives • Elementary Island

Fun Place Value Activity for Elementary Students

Jordana — Sat, 06 Jan 2024 22:38:00 +0000

Let’s have a teacher-to-teacher chat about place value. You know, that math concept that’s as essential as your morning coffee? It’s the key to unlocking the world of numbers. But for some students, this key concept can be a brain teaser. In this blog post, we will dive into why teaching place value is vital in our classrooms, why it often gives our students a run for their money, and most importantly, how we can make it click. I’m excited to share with you a resource that will help your students build their confidence while tackling place value in a fun and engaging way! Dare I say, it’s been called a “fun game”!?!

Importance of Teaching Place Value

Picture place value as this intriguing secret code in the world of mathematics. It’s not just a topic in the curriculum but the bedrock upon which we build a deeper understanding of numbers and mathematical concepts that follow, through many many years of school. Yep – it is that important. And with a topic that important we must give it time each day in our classrooms.

I know what you are thinking, “time every day?” Yes! Since place value is one of those math concepts that gradually builds upon itself, we can build in complexity and difficulty too.

Here are 7 reasons why teaching place value is of utmost importance:

Understanding the Base-10 System: Place value introduces students to the base-10 system, where each digit’s position represents a power of 10. This understanding is fundamental to our number system and forms the basis for all future mathematical operations.
Building Number Sense: Place value helps develop number sense, which is the ability to understand the magnitude and relationships between numbers. Students learn to recognize the value of each digit and how it contributes to the overall value of a number.
Reading and Writing Numbers: With a solid grasp of place value, students can read and write numbers accurately. They understand that each digit holds a specific place and value, allowing them to articulate numbers in both written and numerical form.
Enhancing Arithmetic Skills: Place value is essential for performing addition and subtraction with regrouping (carrying and borrowing). It enables students to manipulate numbers more efficiently and understand the mechanics of arithmetic operations.
Laying the Groundwork for Multiplication and Division: Place value understanding is crucial when students begin to multiply and divide. It helps them comprehend the concept of multiplying by powers of 10, which becomes more apparent as they work with larger numbers.
Facilitating Mental Math: Understanding how numbers are composed and decomposed helps in quick estimation and mental calculation
Preparing for Higher Level Math: Foundational knowledge is needed for tackling more advanced skills such as decimals, fractions, and algebra.

Phew…. That was a lot! Hopefully, you understand that place value is a skill that needs to be mastered and spiraled throughout the year!

Place value is not just another thing we teach. It’s the golden key that unlocks the world of numbers. Our students must genuinely grasp the understanding of place value, as it is the starting point for their math adventures!

The Challenge of Teaching Place Value

But let’s be honest – teaching place value isn’t always smooth sailing, right? It’s like trying to navigate a maze for some of our students. The younger our students, the more difficulty they have with developing a concrete understanding of abstract concepts. Yeah I know, the words ‘concrete’ and ‘abstract’ don’t go well together in a sentence. So now you see the problem.

One reason place value can be tricky is that our learners often learn best through hands-on, tangible experiences. They thrive when they can see, touch, and manipulate objects to understand abstract ideas.

That’s why it’s essential to build a strong foundation with place value blocks like the picture above, using a place value mat to build numbers and to create and decompose the smallest numbers to the larger numbers. The concept of place value is abstract in nature. Bridging the gap between the concrete and abstract can feel like a tall hurdle, but as educators, it’s our creative superpower to take these abstract ideas and serve them up in a relatable, interactive, and fun way!

Students must be able to create a given target number with base-ten blocks. It doesn’t matter if they are two-digit numbers or three-digit numbers at this point because this place value activity is differentiated for your students. You can meet them at any level with this fun game making this place value activity perfect for 2nd grade, 3rd grade or even for 4th grade review!

The Solution: Place Value Skills Swirls

So…. you might be wondering, how in the world do we make the abstract concepts of place value relatable and downright enjoyable for our students, especially when they’re all coming from different learning backgrounds? Well, I’ve got some nifty tricks up my sleeves and these place value swirls are one of my favorite ways!

These classroom tested Place Value Swirls are not your ordinary classroom fare. These little gems are all about diving into numbers in different ways – expanded form, word form, standard form, and base-ten blocks. It’s like an adventure of numbers that will help your students master these concepts.

Here’s how to play this fun place value game:

Pass out the “game board” to each student. Then add the differentiation, focusing on the different place value of the numbers OR by the place value concepts of different ways to write a number.
Students will then cut out all of their strips and place them in a row to be able to see all the different number cards.
Find the start strip and paste it to “START”. Look at the question, answer it, and hunt for your answer on the cut out strips. If it’s there, GREAT! If not, look at the problem again!
Play continues around the page until all the strips have been used!

This resource has three levels for your learners – numbers to the tens place, hundreds place, and thousands place. No one’s left out, and everyone gets a slice of the fun. Want to know an added bonus? These games are a breeze for you, the teacher. They’re no-prep, which means you can focus on what you do best – teaching! Your place value unit will love you!

Why These Place Value Lessons Work

What’s the real magic here? These activities are sneaky little geniuses. Your students won’t even know they’re learning because they’ll think they’re playing games! Yes, you heard it right – it’s education in disguise. I like to call it undercover learning. Not all our students have the same knowledge of place value. Some might be working with tens and hundreds while others are ready for the challenge of thousands. Guess what? This resource is a great way to reach all learners!

I’ve designed these hands-on activities with differentiation magic. When your students dive into them, they won’t even realize that there are different levels at play. The whole class is having a blast together. No one’s feeling left out, and most importantly, no one’s left behind.

That’s the beauty of it. It’s inclusive education at its best. I’ve taken the diversity of understanding and turned it into an opportunity for every student to shine. So whether they’re taking baby steps or making giant leaps in their learning, Place Value Swirls are right there with them.

The swirls are also self-checking, which not only helps students, but helps you too. It’s like having a built-in mentor that gives instant feedback. Students must find the correct number in their strips to move on. This allows students to find and fix mistakes in the moment which only helps learning – using higher level thinking skills to find the mistakes in their own problems.

Building the Foundation of Math with Place Value

We explored the realm of place value and uncovered why place value is important to mathematical understanding. Teaching place value may pose its challenges (easy differentiation, engagement, time constraints to name a few), but we’ve prepared ourselves with engaging activities and resources that make learning this concept accessible and enjoyable for all learners.

Together, we can ignite our learners’ curiosity, boost their confidence in math, and turn a laborious exploration into a fun-filled challenge. With these tools in hand, we’re well-equipped to help all of our learners at all levels achieve math success!

What’s Included in these Place Value Skills Swirls?

(3) Word Form puzzles (tens, hundreds, thousands)
(3) Expanded Form puzzles (tens, hundreds, thousands)
(3) Model Form puzzles (tens, hundreds, thousands)
(3) Mixed Practice puzzles – all place value forms included (tens, hundreds, thousands)

Looking for more tips and ideas on place value? Make sure to check out these blog posts.

Building a Strong Foundation in Place Value – Dives into ways to help with basic place value skills to build that needed foundational level.
6 Benefits of Using Morning Work in Your Classroom – Number sense activities that offer repeated practice through bell ringers for definitive mastery of the concepts.
Fun Place Value Activities Your Students Will Love – Other place value activities that help support your learners in the classroom

Love these Place Value Swirls?

These skill swirls have become one of my students’ favorite place value activities over the years. So much so, they wanted me to create more swirls for other math activities! That’s how the Skills Swirls Ultimate Activities Bundle came to be. The same great game-like feel we used for place value can now be used to help students grasp even more math skills like telling time, money, 3-digit addition and subtraction, place value, and 2-digit addition. It’s a buffet of math lessons!

Sprinkle these fun ideas into your math centers. Use them with the whole group, individualize them to different learning levels, assign them for homework, review day, or prepare for your substitute teacher. However you use them, just know that your students will be getting high-quality skills practice with this hands-on approach.

If you’re searching for a vibrant and effective way to teach place value without the hassle of boring worksheets and less-than-thrilled students, these Skill Swirls are your answer! The differentiated levels cater to various learning needs (tens, hundreds, thousands), providing flexibility for every student. The best part? These games require no prep, making it a time-saving resource for busy teachers. Print & go!

Your students will be so engaged in the interactive nature of these activities that they won’t even realize they’re learning – a sentiment echoed by one student who screamed across the class, “It’s like we aren’t even learning!” With 12 Skill Swirls covering word form, expanded form, and base-10 blocks, this resource is a comprehensive solution for reinforcing place value concepts throughout the entire year!

These engaging place value activities are perfect for

centers,
substitutes,
whole group instruction,
small group instruction,
individual practice,
early finishers,
homework
AND MORE!

Save these Place Value Puzzles

Remember to pin this post to your favorite math or teacher Pinterest board so you can come back when you need fresh ideas on making learning place value fun! Remember, this resource helps with many of the challenges regarding place value – differentiation, engagement and time constraints! Take back your weekends, meet the needs of all of your learners, and create truly engaged students with these Place Value Skill Swirls!

The post Fun Place Value Activity for Elementary Students appeared first on Elementary Island.

7 Engaging and Fun Place Value Activities to increase Student Success

Jordana — Wed, 22 Jun 2022 20:34:00 +0000

Teaching place value can sometimes prove to be a difficult task. Children are concrete learners, and place value is much more abstract. As teachers, we must find ways to make the abstract concepts of math something our students can understand and connect too. Over the years I’ve tried lots of different place value activities with varying levels of success. Today I’m excited to share some of my favorite place value activities that find their way into my classroom year after year.

Teaching Place Value

Many researchers say place value is the most fundamental early math concept students need to learn. They can’t really progress in math until they understand these basic concepts. Place value is the building block for teaching the decimal system, regrouping, and multi-digit numbers. Without place value, your students wouldn’t know the different between $5 and $500 when they’re trying to buy that new bicycle. As teachers, we know how important it is, and how difficult it can sometimes be, for students to understand place value. So let’s try and and make it relatable and fun!

Fun Place Value Activities Students Love

1. Games

Who doesn’t love a good classroom game? Games are great ways to get students involved and excited about learning. My favorite place value game is called Last Man Standing. It’s a great game for students to connect with place value concepts in a personal way.

To play, everyone needs a whiteboard and a marker. We all begin by writing down a random 3 digit number on our boards. If your standards involve larger or smaller numbers you can easily adjust the number of digits in the number. Then call out some number clues using place value terms: “If you have a four in the tens place sit down. If you have a 7 in the hundreds place sit down. If you have a 3 in the ones place sit down.” This continues until there is only one person left standing. That person then shows me the correct number in model form to be the winner. Grab a free Last Man Standing certificate you can use in your classroom, along with some other place value activities. The kids love playing this game and it is so.much.fun! Any time students beg for a learning game it’s a keeper for sure!

2. Learning With Songs

There’s something about music that helps students learn and remember. Even the most difficult concepts are made easier with a song. That’s what made old favorites like Schoolhouse Rock so popular! I mean, if you watched those as a kid don’t you still know the function of a conjunction and how a bill becomes a law? Anything that can help my students learn will find its way into my classroom and music definitely has. We have songs for a variety of topics, including place value.

It’s time for a good ol’ military cadence with our place value song. This song, to the tune of “I don’t know, but I’ve been told”, is a fun way to learn foundational place value concepts for ones, tens and hundreds. Grab the words and motions for this place value song for FREE, along with some other place value goodies!

3. Hands-On Fun

Play-dough is another fun tool to use for practicing place value. It is perfect for whole class, small group or centers. I love to call out a number and have students build it using play dough. We make play dough place value blocks (a square for a hundred, a snake for a ten and a small ball for a one) and get busy building numbers. It’s a great tactile approach and helps cement our place value learning with another learning style.

Shaving cream is another super fun tool to use when learning place value, or anything really. A small squirt of shaving cream on the desk or table creates the perfect drawing space. Students can easily draw a place value chart and create numbers by drawing with their finger in the shaving cream. When it is time for the next number we simply erase and start again. And as a bonus . . . the desks are so clean when this activity is done and the classroom smells great!

Traditional place value blocks are also a great hands-on tool for students when learning place value. There’s something about the physical activity of choosing and moving these manipulatives around that makes these abstract concepts more concrete.

Daily Place Value Practice

Practice makes perfect! With a skill as important as place value, we owe it to our students to make sure that they get all the practice they need to master this skill. It’s a good idea to incorporate place value into your daily routines. I like to weave it into our morning work and morning meeting time together. My Number of the Day resource is perfect for this. Students get a daily review of place value concepts while working on other number sense concepts too.

The Number of the Day resource is jam packed with skills such as:

Even or odd
Hundreds, tens, and ones
Skip counting
Adding and subtracting
Drawing place value using blocks or sticks
Word From
1, 10, and 100 more and less

Every morning, students have a new Number of the Day worksheet on their desk. At the beginning of the year we work them together, but it isn’t long before students can complete it independently. It also helps make our arrival times less chaotic. Students know that after they arrive and unpack, they begin working on Number of the Day.

I love this resource so much that I want you to try two weeks for FREE! Grab your free weeks of 2 and 3 digit Number of the Day fun here!

And if you love it and are ready to use Number of the Day all year long then you can find it in my store at Teachers Pay Teachers.

Digital Place Value Activities

Boom cards are all the rage, and for good reason! These digital task cards are not only fun, but they provide students with immediate feedback as they practice. The use of technology really engages students. These Place Value Boom Cards will have your students working with 3 digit numbers in no time.

Students will start off with a given three-digit number They will have to pick how many hundreds, tens, and ones are in each number. This is followed by numbers shown in place value blocks. Students will then have to pick the correct number based on the picture model. Next, they will practice writing a given number using expanded form. With the variety of activities, students stay challenged and engaged the entire time. Boom cards are a win-win for everyone! Grab these Place Value Boom Cards now!

Color by Place Value

I don’t know about you, but my class always enjoys a good color-by-code activity. There is something magical about watching a hidden picture come to life. And the beauty of it is that they don’t even realize how hard they are working at mastering skills while discovering the picture as they color. There’s more “problems” on a typical color by code activity than I would ever assign in a math worksheet. But there are no moans or groans for the Color by Code activity.

For ready-to-use color by place value activities check out my back-to-school Color by Code Place Value resource. Included are 6 different differentiated activities. Your students will practice. . .

model form
standard form
word form
expanded form

The activities have a “school theme” which makes them perfect to use any time of the year.

Math and Art

One of my all-time favorite place value activities connects art to math. Students are provided with pictures of place value blocks that they must use to create a picture. Once they are done, they must determine the number of hundreds, tens and ones used in their picture. The students LOVE creating their place value pictures and are so excited to share them with each other once they are done.

Grab this Place Value Free Resource and get everything you need to make place value pictures in your classroom (along with the place value song and the game certificate).

Place Value is Fun!

We have lots of fun learning about place value in my classroom. I hope that you have found some ideas that you can use in your classroom too! Pin this image to your favorite math Pinterest board so you can come back when you need fun place value activities for your classroom.

The post 7 Engaging and Fun Place Value Activities to increase Student Success appeared first on Elementary Island.

15 Insanely Easy Valentine’s Day Activities

Jordana — Mon, 06 Dec 2021 01:16:00 +0000

Holidays are always an exciting time in the classroom and Valentine’s Day is no exception! With their minds focused on all things hearts, candy and cards, it can be hard to keep them focused in the classroom. I love incorporating Valentine’s Day activities with my students, but sometimes I think it takes more work to prep than it does for the students to actually do the activities and crafts. I’m sure you can relate! This year, I am determined to use cute crafts and activities that are insanely easy! Here are 15 insanely easy Valentine’s day activities to try this year.

Build Classroom Community With Easy Valentine’s Day Activities

This special holiday is a favorite in my classroom, mainly because of candy and crafts. But, it’s also a time I like to focus heavily on kindness and building classroom community. And by this time in the year, we could definitely use a renewed sense of community.

Use the Valentine holiday to engage and teach students with fun, themed activities plus spread some love and kindness at the same time. Valentine’s can make students feel so special especially when they are giving and receiving from the heart.

These 15 insanely easy Valentine’s day activities will keep your kids engaged and full of love this Valentine’s season.

1. Handwritten Notes

Have your students write handwritten notes of kindness on heart-shaped paper. Not only is this a great way to get in some writing practice, but it is a great way to help students notice the kindness and generosity of others.

All you need to complete this activity is some heart-shaped paper. Have your students cut their own hearts or ask a parent volunteer to spend a few minutes in the workroom at the die-cut machine. It’s simple and easy to do!

I like to ask my students to create a rough draft of their handwritten notes for some peer or teacher review before creating their final draft. That way students know that their final note is the best they can do! It’s an easy way to add a Valentine’s theme to your daily writing practice or center activities.

These handwritten notes can be given to friends, family, or even a member of our school staff. Nothing is quite as special as receiving a handwritten Valentine from a child!

2. Read and Write Poems

I don’t need a Valentine’s treat

My students are already too sweet

Full of kindness and love

Each one I will hug

They make my world complete.

Valentine’s day wouldn’t be complete without some poetry. It’s a wonderful time to jump into a poetry unit with your class. With so many different styles of poetry the activities are endless!

Some easy Valentine’s Day activities could include writing poetry on your classroom or school windows with window paint or chalk markers. You could even hold a poetry jam for your class or grade level for younger students or parents to attend.

But one of my favorite is using the traditional “Roses are red, Violets are blue . . . ” poems. Students love to write these poems to their family as cards for the holiday. They are also great to share with friends too!

Check out this fun poetry freebie for students to write out their own “Roses are red, Violets are blue” poems. Use this as a writing center activity, morning work or even put out as an early finisher activity. However you use it, this is one of those easy Valentine’s Day activities that’s sure to bring out your student’s creativity.

3. Valentine STEM challenges

No matter what time of year, STEM challenges are always a fun and exciting way to teach in the classroom!

With simple items like cardstock, construction paper, tape, straws, and popsicle sticks, your students can create a candy box large enough to hold their Valentine’s Day cards and candy. It’s a great way to connect some critical and creative thinking with a usable project like a Valentine’s Day box.

To turn these easy Valentine’s boxes into a STEM challenge, present your students with a problem they have to solve by creating their box. Better yet, grab these already planned out Valentine STEM activities.

All you need to do is grab some commonly found items, copy the pages, and let your students get busy. STEM is always a great way to get students engaged and learning and using these challenges near Valentine’s Day is a no-brainer! These easy Valentine’s day activities are low-prep, teacher-friendly, and easy to put together.

4. 10 Random Acts of Kindness

Valentine’s Day is about love and friendship which is the perfect time to incorporate random acts of kindness into your classroom activities.

Take some time to talk with your class about what a random act of kindness is, and why it is important to spread kindness. Then, challenge your students to complete 10 random acts of kindness before Valentine’s Day.

Before we begin I love to do a class brainstorming session. We talk about random acts of kindness we can do at school, home or in the community. This really helps to get the class thinking of a variety of ideas.

Your students can plan out and start completing their random acts of kindness over a couple days, or done one a day for the 10 days leading up to Valentine’s Day. It is such a great group activity for the entire class to participate in!

My absolute favorite thing about this activity is that the students learn that they are not too young to make a difference or be kind. That’s a lesson that I love teaching them! You can teach this lesson too by grabbing this Random Acts of Kindness freebie!

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5. Candy Heart Estimation Activity

It’s easier than you think to incorporate some math into your easy Valentine’s Day activities. With a jar and some candy hearts, your students will be using their estimating skills to try to figure out how many candy hearts are in the jar.

Each day I change the number of hearts in the jar. While students are truly taking a guess those first few days, it’s not too long before they start using what they learned on previous days to make educated guesses. I love incorporating this into our morning routine or as a math warm-up activity.

It’s a really fun, hands-on way to practice estimating. Every few days I ask my students to reflect on the activity and what they’ve learned. This reflection time really pays off as their guesses get closer and closer.

6. I Love… Valentine’s Day Self-Esteem Activity

Valentine’s Day is the holiday of love and that means loving yourself too, right? I love this Valentine’s Day I Love that I… activity so much. Because students are taking time to think about things they are good at, and what they like about themselves, they are going to get a nice confidence boost.

In the past, I have laminated these and made a super cute display for my students to see as we prepare for state testing. It’s a great reminder of their strengths, abilities and attributes. It’s also great way to visually remind them how amazing they are. Once we are done having them on display, they can be sent home for parents to treasure.

You can grab this self-reflection resource for free. But don’t let the hearts fool you, it’s a good thing to do any time of the year!

7. Color By Codes

This Valentine Day color by code activity is so much fun. It’s also a great way to engage your students in practicing their math skills the weeks and days leading up to Valentine’s Day!

Students will use 3-digit addition to solve the problems for each space on the picture. Then they will color in the picture using the code at the top of each page.

These bright, beautiful pictures are perfect for hanging up in your classroom or hallway to add a little Valentine’s decor to your space and show off some amazing math skills at the same time!

I really love this math activity because it’s engaging while also bringing in the fun of the holiday. I love to use these activities in a math center and as morning work. But they are so versatile and can be used in many ways.

This set includes 6 Valentine-themed coloring pictures to choose from! There is also a Place Value color by codes activity and subtraction activity as well!

8. Read Valentine Themed Books

Reading is such an important part of our day-to-day life in the classroom. I love to incorporate holiday reading all year long. It is a fun change of pace for the students and brings joy and excitement. There are lots of fun, Valentine-themed books options for the holiday! Use them as a mentor text or just as a read aloud. And . . . for a fun change of pace throw in an audio book or a book video.

We love the “Love Monster” books by Rachel Bright! It is an adorable and witty book that you are sure to enjoy just as much as your students.

After reading a Love Monster book to my class, it’s time for a Love Monster craft. This easy activity is also super cute.

This simple craft uses easy to find supplies including:

Construction paper
Stickers (optional)
Crayons/Markers
Scissors
Glue

The students love the connection to the book and it makes a great way to add in discussion about the story elements, sequencing or retelling too!

This cute love monster can be added to a bulletin board, glued to the front of a paper bag or box and used as a cardholder, or incorporated into the class Valentine’s Day party.

One of my favorite Valentine’s Day party activities is doing activity stations. With a few parent volunteers we can fill the afternoon with some fun Valentine’s Day fun. This craft is perfect for these types of stations.

9. Valentine’s Day Bookmarks

A simple, yet fun craft for students is making their very own bookmarks! This activity can be as simple or complex as you like. It can be as easy as some pre-cut cardstock and markers or you can add embellishments like stickers, stamps, ribbon, glitter and anything else you can think of!

You could ask your students to write a quote from their favorite book, write a positive message, or even design a bookmark to be used in a bookmark swap during your Valentine’s Day party.

I have had my students create their bookmarks a week or two in advance so I could laminate them all. Then I punched a hole in the top and add a piece of ribbon. It makes an easy activity that students love.

I’ve even had students come back years later and show me that they are still using their bookmark.

10. Valentine’s Day Math Mystery

What’s more mysterious than a secret admirer? This Valentines Day math mystery is a “crack the code” type game your students won’t be able to get enough of! Your students will be challenged to use their problem-solving skills to find clues to figure out “who done it”.

The case of the secret admirer is about a girl, Lucy, who is receiving Valentine’s gifts from a secret admirer. Lucy wants to thank the person, but first, she must figure out who it is! Your students will love finding clues and narrow down her admirer in this adorable, fun Valentine game!

I love using these NO PREP Valentine’s day math mystery activities during the week of or the week before Valentine’s day. The students are so engaged and they are easy to use in an already hectic week.

11. Heart Collage

During this holiday focused on love, creating a heart collage is a great way for students to think about those things that are important to them. Using heart cut-outs, students write the name of a variety of things that they “love.” Then we glue them on a sheet of paper to create a heart collage.

In addition to writing on the hearts, students can draw pictures or find pictures in magazines of different things they love. I also tell students that they can bring in a picture of important people in their life too! They love seeing all those special people, places and things in one picture!

12. Heart Hunt Game

When you have the opportunity to combine math with a game, you are sure to get your students’ attention and focus. I’m still surprised sometimes when I tell my class we are going to play a math game and I’m met with cheers instead of groans.

For Valentine’s day, I mix things up a little by making our game Valentine-themed. This simple game gets your students to practice their addition skills in a fun competition. I have done this activity with students individually, in small groups, and even as a center activity during our Valentine’s day party.

I grabbed some cheap foam heart stickers from the dollar store and wrote values on all of them. Then I hid them around the room. When it was time for the game, my students would walk around the room searching for the hearts adding up the values as they went. It’s a great way to review the commutative property of addition too!

The winner is the first student to find all the hearts and also have the correct answer. It is a simple, engaging game that students enjoy! And with a few number changes, you have a whole new game!

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13. Valentine’s Day Bingo

This is one of my student’s favorite games and always an easy Valentine’s Day activity! Bingo is always a huge hit in my classroom for both me and my students, but with a Valentine’s day theme, it’s even sweeter.

This ready-to-use game just needs to be printed out. I suggest laminating the cards so they can be used year after year. Playing bingo is a great class reward or addition to the class Valentine’s Day party.

This awesome activity comes with everything you need including calling cards and 20 original Valentine’s day themed Bingo cards.

With adorable pictures like candies, hearts, and flowers, your students will have a great time finding the images as you or a student helper call them out. I love to use candy hearts for students to mark their Bingo cards.

14. Candy Hearts Writing

Okay, this is such a fun and silly Valentine’s day activity that will have everyone cracking up. Using candy hearts, students write out a story and use the phrases or words on the candy hearts to take the place of some of the words in the story.

It’s easy to differentiate this activity for lower or higher-level grade levels. For younger students, sort through the hearts ahead of time to find words or phrases you are sure they will know. For older students, I ask them to randomly select a specific number of candy hearts and then use whatever words or phrases they get to write their story.

Asking for student volunteers to read their stories is one of my favorite activities. I’m always amazed at their cleverness when it comes to writing a story using candy hearts.

This Valentine’s activity helps with important writing skills and lets your students utilize their creativity by finding words to fit their narrative. It is a really fun, engaging activity that your students will love!

15. I Love You to Pieces Activity

Looking for easy Valentine’s Day gifts students can make? This “I Love You to Pieces” freebie is your answer! It’s a great card for parents, grandparents and other special people in your students’ lives.

I create a station filled with all the supplies students need, including: big cut-out hearts in pink, red, and white. Each heart says “I love you to pieces”. Students can color, decorate and write a message inside. At the station, students can use a variety of materials like stickers, glitter, markers, crayons, and puzzle pieces to decorate their paper heart. Alternatively, they can use Reeses Pieces too!

Students will love creating this for their family and I love being part of teaching them importance of giving to others!

Valentine’s Day Made Easy

If you are like most teachers, holidays can be a little stressful and chaotic. Students can get easily distracted by all the fun and excitement surrounding each holiday. Having engaging, fun, and easy Valentine’s day activities on hand can help students stay on task while also hitting important learning targets. These are some of my favorite games, activities, and craft to excite and engage students during the month of February with a fun Valentine theme they will love.

Be sure to grab your Valentine’s day FREEBIE pack today for all of the free resources from this post! You can also find more easy-to-use, fun Valentine’s Day activities in my store at Teachers Pay Teachers.

I know you and your students love all of these easy Valentine’s day activities as much as we do!

Pin it!

Be sure to save these 15 insanely easy Valentine’s day activities to your favorite Pinterest teacher board so you can come back anytime for fun and engaging Valentine’s day activities your students will love!

The post 15 Insanely Easy Valentine’s Day Activities appeared first on Elementary Island.

3 Easy Activities to Build a Strong Foundation for Place Value

Jordana — Tue, 10 Dec 2019 16:00:00 +0000

In every elementary grade level, what skill do you see show up at the beginning of the year? If you said place value, you would be correct. Place value is HUGE in all grade levels. It is the foundation of many other math skills that the child will build upon. BUUUUUTTTT, what do I see happen all the time? It is practiced for a month or so until a new skill needs to be addressed and that new skill takes its place. It’s understandable. There’s a lot in the curriculum. However, place value skills show up in the common core standards and many state tests like air is to us breathing! That’s why I’m focusing on 3 easy activities to build a strong foundation for place value for students.

“Understanding place value” grows in complexity every year. By 3rd grade students are expected to be experts in place value so they can “fluently add and subtract within 1000” using number sense strategies based on place value (I’m pretty sure that might even be my 2nd grade standard!). How do we meet such lofty expectations? Use these place value activities to help nurture, grow and expand your student’s understanding.

Number Chants

The first activity to build a strong foundation in place value is number chants. Students start to comprehend place value when you have them orally practice saying the number. I usually introduce this whole group. I place a number on the board and students have to read it out loud. So for 321, the students would chant “three hundred twenty-one.” It’s a great way to get rid of those ‘ands’ they always want to put in between.

Make this fun! We chant in different ways – boys, girls, whisper, yell, slow-mo, high-pitch, low-pitch, cheerleader, etc… You can grab them HERE or by clicking on the picture.

Once we understand how to orally say the words, we can put them in writing. Writing out the numbers as words can help your students recognize which numbers are hundreds, tens, and ones. Students can also read the number aloud to help with comprehension in both reading and math. This skill is also important in financial literacy. Although check writing isn’t as common today, it’s still a skill students need to practice!

Number Breakdowns

There are so many ways to form 3-digit numbers! Even if you’re focusing just on addition, there are multiple options to add numbers to equal the target solution. These are found in many Number Talks resources and I agree it’s very imperative for student understanding of numbers.

One easy way, again I start in whole group, is to put a “target number on the board.” I collect equations from the class. I call this Number Breakdown. It’s a great whole-group activity. Eventually your students who sit silent will begin to participate after many of these are practiced. They will catch on to some of the other student’s thinking and offer suggestions.

Remember those number chants? That is a great way to get our struggling students participating. If they can SAY a number, then they can write the expanded form to most numbers. Literally each number they say is written down, add your plus signs, and they’re golden!

As a visual, I also try to show how the students came up with their equation. I show how they separated the hundreds, tens or ones. See the pic below.

Using a different number of the day every day of the year will let your students practice different equations and ways of forming 3-digit numbers using addition. Understanding ways to form numbers using equations is the basis of algebraic thinking and mental math which is something that will be a necessity for your students. This activity is essential to building a strong foundation for place value.

Creating Model Forms

Model forms are essential for understanding place value. Place value mats are an important tool to help your students understand how to understand the concrete to abstract relationship. You can get my maps by clicking HERE.

Allow time for students to use base ten blocks to represent certain numbers. Students should spend some time creating numbers like 134, 229 and other 3-digit numbers to understand the hundreds, tens ones relationship. Once these are created, base ten blocks are a great way to show how to manipulate the blocks to create the same number.

For instance, 143 can be 1 hundred 4 tens and 3 ones OR 1 hundred 3 tens and 13 ones. Conversely, you can give students a number like 2 hundreds 3 tens and 17 ones for the students to create the number in standard form. This is why I am and advocate of the place value mat that has two ten-frames on it. This helps students understand the relationship between the values. Don’t forget the relationship between 10’s and 100’s as well for students!

The importance of understanding model form will help your students transition nicely from basic addition and subtraction to addition and subtraction with regrouping. The concept will be easier for your students to understand and apply. If you are just starting out, you may want to read about how to teach 2-digit addition with regrouping first.

Those are the 3 EASY activities to build a strong foundation for place value. The importance of place value understanding is so critical, that it should really be something that is practiced daily. A literacy expert, Timothy Shanahan studied that students need to see a word approximately 10-15 times to learn it fully. A special education student would take double that amount of time! Imagine what that number would be for automaticity in mathematics where concepts are so abstract! Practice is key.

In my number of the day worksheets, I offer a wide variety of activities to practice using 3-digit numbers. These activities are important for your student’s development of number sense and place value. I have three products available around this concept.

My 2-digit and 3-digit number of the day packets will help your students practice these important skills for 60 days! Each day has a different number with the same skills. Students can easily work on these during bellwork, small groups, or centers. The questions and outline remain the same. Grab a differentiated 5 day sample of my number of the day packets HERE (5 2-digit and 5 3-digit place value mats).

If you are really serious about keeping those place value skills going, I also offer a 3-digit Number of the Day Holiday Bundle that will INCREASE in difficulty. Students will practice the same skill for a month at a time and then the following month, 3-4 new activities will be added building off the previous skills. This is a great way for students to see the same place value skills in a variety of ways! If you’re interested in seeing those skills, CLICK HERE.

The post 3 Easy Activities to Build a Strong Foundation for Place Value appeared first on Elementary Island.