Place Value

For the past three weeks we have been working on place value and comparing numbers. I showed the students a cool way to find out the expanded form of a number. Expanded form means showing the number in a bigger or longer form (we remember this by the word EXPAND). 

Anyway, when we began to talk about expanded for I gave each of the kids 3 cups. We talked about the place value of ones, tens and hundreds. After doing this, we listed those values on a cup. One cup we used for ones, another one we wrote the value of tens, and lastly hundreds. When we stacked these three cups, we could make numbers. We rotated the cups as if we were making numbers for the pass code to a briefcase or safe. We could make any combination of a number to 999. When we wanted to know the expanded form of that number, we EXPANDED the cups!

Here is an example. 

If we chose the number 952, our cups would look like this. 

Now to see the expanded form: 900+50+2

The kids really liked using the cups, and we're very excited that thy got to make their own cup. The cups were suppose to be sent home today, but we were so busy that I forgot all about it. 

I will be sending the cups home on Monday (if I can remember).  When they come home, please throw a few numbers at your child and see if they can show you the expanded form. By now, your child shouldn't have to use the cups, but it's a great way for them to check to see if they expanded numbers the right way. As an extension, you can add a 1000 place value cup into the mix. See if they can expand even larger numbers!