It’s a round-up of place value blog posts to get you excited about teaching this essential concept!

Many teachers start the year working on place value concepts, but it’s truly a topic that we cycle through all year long in increasing sophistication!  Remember, place value is a complex topic that develops as a progression from the very first days in school (or earlier!) to much more advanced mathematics.  Check out this list and see how critical this concept is! If there is a break down at any stage, we run the risk of creating gaps for future learning.

Place Value Progression

1. In the early grades, a huge focus is on the idea that we can build numbers up to 10, and then “add more” to make bigger numbers.
2. Students then begin to see how addition and subtraction work together to make (compose) and break (decompose) these numbers into parts.
3. We see students using objects to “show” these stories.  Gradually, we want them to represent them with numbers and symbols.
4. As students develop a better understanding of our place value system, we want them to be flexible enough to add or subtract 10 from a number.  This shows a critical understanding of the ones and tens places.
5. Once students have developed this understanding, we introduce the hundreds place and go through these steps again with these larger numbers.
6. We also want students to learn about estimating and rounding so they can check work for reasonableness.
7. We want students to be able to represent numbers in different ways. This could involve manipulatives, number lines, or other models.
8. As students develop their place value understanding through the hundreds place, we continue to push the addition and subtraction concepts with these numbers.  Again, we stress the idea of composing and decomposing using these different places.
9. Eventually, we hope the solid place value understanding leads to addition and subtraction fluency.
10. As students get older, we expect understanding of “place value” for even larger numbers, and then “parts” of numbers with decimals and fractions.

Some Math Lesson Ideas and Motivation for You!

Want some inspiration for your own place value instruction?  Check out the following posts for more!

How about a post about looking for and coaching through place value misconceptions?  CLICK HERE or the image below!  

Estimation is a critical component of place value instruction.  Check out this post for details and strategies!  CLICK HERE or the image that follows.

Looking for some information about “structuring”–looking at composing and decomposing smaller numbers.  This is perfect for lower grades or for intervention work for intermediate students.  Click the image below or RIGHT HERE.

How about number lines?  This post is all about using number lines to help students model their thinking.  CLICK HERE or the image below!

Wait!  Want to read ANOTHER blog post about number lines?  This one might really get you thinking–and hopefully realize that we can be pushing our students so much more than we do.  Developing “number sense” with large numbers is so important!  CLICK HERE or the image below!

My blog has a ton of other posts for you as well–just search for what you need!  Thanks for stopping by…

Don’t forget that you can always search my Teachers Pay Teachers store for place value resources as well.  Click RIGHT HERE to get started! Click the image below to see my HUGE place value bundle!

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