Having fun teaching, building and learning!

My 5th graders are learning about place value through billions. It was time for a funny hands-on activity with building blocks. Simply we wrote the numbers on the blocks. The ones goes on the smallest block, then work your way up to the 4 blocks (thousands),7 blocks (millions) and 10 blocks (billions). The blocks allowed my students to conclude that the biggest number must be at the bottom of the stack, building up to the smallest unit. We wrote a number in expanded form using the stacking method. “Playing” with blocks helped my student to physically see and experience place value. This is an important step before one can expect them to understand the concept on paper. Making learning concrete, helps students to understand a concept easier. It makes learning fun too!