Grade Levels: K-3

In this set of activities adaptable for grades K-3, parents and educators will find ideas for teaching about place value. These activities are designed to complement the BrainPOP Jr. Place Value topic page, which includes a movie, quizzes, online games, printable activities, and more.

Classroom Activities for Teaching Place Value

Place Value Bingo
Make bingo cards using different numbers. You may want students to make their own bingo cards using one-, two-, or three-digit numbers and then have them swap cards with other students. Then call out different numbers or clues such as “any number with 3 in the ones place” or “any number with no tens.” The first person to get bingo can call out numbers in the next round.

Bean Bag Number Toss

Take 10 separate pieces of paper and label them each from 0 to 9. Then give a student one, two, or three bean bags to throw at different numbers to create a number. For example, if a student throws bags on a 2 and a 3, he or she forms the number 23. Write the number on the board and have students say the number out loud and model the number using manipulatives. Have students take turn throwing bean bags.

Number Clues

Model a number story for your students, such as “There are 7 tens, 1 one, and 9 hundreds.” Then have students write their answers. Divide the students into small groups and have them write or tell each other their own number stories. You may want them to use place value charts to help them solve.

Roll to 100

Students work in pairs to play this collaborative game. They take turns rolling one or two dice and then showing the total of their roll with interlocking cubes or base-ten blocks. They keep rolling and amassing more cubes or blocks and when they have a group of 10 ones, they can swap it for a rod of 10. They can keep track of how many cubes they have by lining them up on or next to a hundred chart. When they have collected 100 cubes they can play again.

Family and Homeschool Activities for Teaching Place Value

Number Hunt

Take a walk with your child around the neighborhood. Look for one-, two-, three-digit numbers and have your child read them out loud. You may want your child to record the numbers that he or she sees. Discuss each number and ask how many ones, tens, or hundreds are in the number. What is the largest number you can find? What is the smallest number?

Hat Trick

Write the numbers 0 through 9 on separate index cards or scraps of paper and place them in a hat. Have your child draw one, two, or three cards out of the hat. He or she can make different numbers. For example, if your child pulls the numbers 3, 6, and 9, he or she can make 3, 6, 9, 36, 39, 396, 693, etc. Challenge your child to make as many numbers as possible using the cards. What is the smallest number your child can make? What is the largest number? Help your child compare numbers by looking at the largest place values.

Base Ten Strips

Make your own manipulatives with your child at home. On one-inch graph paper have your child color 20 single boxes and then color 20 strips of 10. Help your child cut out the strips and singles. Then you can keep them in a zip-top bag and use them to make numbers that you pick out of a hat or play other number games with them. Your child can even build his or her own 100 chart by gluing 10 strips of 10 onto a poster board and labeling the numbers.

Filed as:  K-3, Math, Number Sense, Place Value