The BEST way to teach place value to your students is by using hands-on materials and manipulatives. The First Grade place value lessons, centers, and activities I’m sharing below are designed to give your students hands-on experiences to build number sense and place value, and gather a deeper understanding of ones, tens, and hundreds.
Like all my other math units, my guided math lessons follow the acronym, MASTER. You can read more about my Master Math Curriculum here. Each letter stands for a component in math:
M=manipulatives
A=apply skills
S=small group
T=technology
E=enrichment
R=review
With every math unit I create, I like to choose a theme to go with it. This unit’s theme is construction and building. Let’s take a peek at each part of this acronym and how it is utilized in my First Grade Place Value Unit!
Manipulatives
This rotation is filled with hands-on place value activities. I have included several sets of puzzles to do matching. There is a place value sort and a fun build-a-number using base ten blocks.
Apply Skills
We apply our learned skills by playing games. There are a variety of different games included. There is memory, war, roll a number, bingo, and base ten block games.
Small Group
During small group, students rotate to my table and we practice what we are learning together using paper-pencil activities. I usually have 4 or 5 students at a time. It is a great way to see who is understanding the concepts and who still needs more help.
Technology
Technology is a great tool to engage students in math. It also reaches those learners who may struggle in a different area of math. In this unit, there are several Boom & Google slides for students to practice place value.
Enrichment
This rotation takes the concept at hand and gives open-ended options and expands to a higher level of learning. I have place value activities beyond the hundreds for those who are ready for it. This rotation is always open and children work on it independently.
Review
We call the review center the “green” center because I always print it on green paper. It helps me visually when sorting and filing. Review is key to keeping concepts fresh and revisiting learning in case it wasn’t mastered the first time. This rotation is a quiet, independent workstation.
At the end of each unit, there is an assessment. Since we don’t do rotations on assessment day, I have created a fun cumulative craft to go along with the theme. In this unit, we make construction workers who have built a number using longs and cubes or tens and ones.
There are so many other components in this unit from lesson plans, assessment recording sheets, “I can” posters, binder covers, and book suggestions, I am confident your students will love this unit as much as mine do!
Here is what a few other teachers have said about this First Grade Place Value Unit:
“This is hands down one of the BEST resources that I have purchased on TPT. It is so easy to follow along with. It is laid out clearly. It does take time to prep, but it is definitely worth it. My students even play some of the activities during their Friday free time because they like them so much! 10 out 10 recommend.”
“My kids love these math units. They break each concept or skill into easy to learn lessons. The technology components and the games are fantastic.”
“This resource is very engaging, my students loved the construction theme and the craft. They enjoyed learning!”
Read more about MASTER Math units right here on my blog:
- Overview of Master Math: Guided Math Using Master Math Curriculum
- Unit 1: Building Number Sense
- Unit 2: Addition to 10
- Unit 3: Subtraction to 10
- Unit 4: Geometry – 2D 3D Shapes & Fractions
