5 Tips for Teaching Place Value in First Grade

Teaching place value is an essential part of any first-grade math curriculum. If you’re a primary teacher, you likely spend a lot of time here, I know I do! Over the years I’ve found some tried and true activities for teaching place value that are always a big hit. If you’re ready to simplify this process in your room, buckle up for 5 fun tips I know you’ll love!

The Importance of Teaching Place Value

First things first… let’s talk about why this matters so much in first grade! Understanding place value is the first step to being successful in other areas of math. This is because it’s a fundamental piece of number sense and will lay the foundation for all other areas of math. Children must understand place value to work with larger numbers, compare numbers, and complete basic operations within addition and subtraction. Without a solid understanding of place value, students will struggle when working with two-digit numbers and more complex concepts.

So that being said, we need to make an effort to work on place value daily for success. Yes, daily! In the first-grade classroom, students need continued exposure to specific skills and topics to achieve mastery. And when it comes to teaching place value, I have found that daily practice really does make all the difference! You might be wondering if this gets boring… It certainly can if you don’t use the right activities. But, lucky for you, I am sharing 5 tips that will allow you to squeeze in more practice, without getting monotonous!

1. Use Digital Activities for Teaching Place Value

When teaching place value, you can engage students in digital activities like boom cards.

It’s no secret that students enjoy digital activities. This fact alone is a great reason to include some digital math activities in your lesson plan! But beyond this, there are so many other great benefits! I find digital activities to be especially helpful for teaching place value to my whole group at once.

I have quite a few decks of Place Value Boom Cards that come in handy for this purpose. All I need to do is choose a deck and project it on the interactive whiteboard. Then, everyone can see as I demonstrate specific skills or activities to the class. My students love the bright, engaging slides and I love how easy it is to teach using them!

Inside my Place Value Boom Card Bundle quite a few skills are covered under the topic of place value including:

Counting Place Value
Identifying Tens and Ones
Building Numbers Using Tens and Ones
Comparing 2-Digit Numbers
Ten More, 10 Less, 1 More, 1 Less
Extend the Counting Sequence

I love having so much variety with these decks because I can focus on one specific skill within place value at a time. We can slowly work our way up and keep things interesting all while using this group teaching format. As I provide examples in a group setting, I also like to call on students one at a time to come up to the board and try their hand at solving the task card. This is a really fun “exit ticket” option as you are lining up for lunch or recess!

2. Try Teaching Place Value with Food

Food like cereal, goldfish and pretzels and can be used when teaching place value.

Raise your hand if you love snacks! If you asked your students this question, you’d likely get a lot of hands in the air. And who can blame them? Food is fun! This is why I love to use it when teaching place value in first grade. This works especially well if you’re able to sit in small groups during math time, but it can also work in group format if you’re able to circulate and help kiddos who might get stuck.

The way I do this in my room is by bagging up some snacks ahead of time for each student. You can use whatever you like but my favorites are cereal, Goldfish crackers, pretzel sticks, and raisins. You can give students a mix of items or use all of the same. The amount you put in each baggie will also vary depending on how difficult you want to make the task.

Once everyone has their baggie, I have them dump them out (carefully) on a paper plate. Then, they get to work putting the items in groups of tens. If you’re using all the same snacks, they will just make groups of tens and then see how many ones are left over. If they have multiple snacks in their bag, they can sort by type first and then repeat this process.

Then, I have them draw tens and ones on a blank piece of paper to match what they ended up with. Finally, they write the number/numbers to illustrate this. Oh, and after I check their work – they get to eat up! This is a really fun activity to include once a week to keep your kids excited about place value. Try incorporating it on Fun Friday, or anytime you need a break from the normal routine.

3. Use Snap Cubes in Place of Base Ten Blocks

Students can build numbers using math cubes to represent tens and ones.

One of the manipulatives that I have a plethora of in my room is snap cubes. We’ve got tons of them! I take advantage of this and use them as a “base ten block” substitute from time to time. Now don’t get me wrong – base ten blocks are a great tool for teaching place value! I just like to mix it up sometimes.

To do this, I give the kids a big bucket of snap cubes along with some task cards that feature 2-digit numbers. Students will choose a number and then use the snap cubes to build tens and ones to model it. Yep, super simple, right?! The best part is that you can vary the activity by choosing which numbers to include. This makes it easy to increase the difficulty over time as your students progress in understanding.

I love this activity for morning work time because it requires very little effort for me to put together. Plus, the kids can easily stop and start the activity since there are no recording sheets or additional materials to worry about.

4. Use Fun Videos to Review

Fun videos like the one shown in this image can be a great tool to use when teaching tens and ones.

Do your kids ever need a quick review on place value before diving into their assignment? Mine too! This is one of the reasons I love to keep some short, fun videos on hand when teaching place value. After a while, I think my kids tune out my voice like the teacher on Charlie Brown. You know it’s true! So if I notice them seeming less engaged, but still in need of a review, I will pop on a video like this one.

It’s short enough that it won’t soak up a ton of time and offers a change of pace to snag their attention. I find this to be especially helpful before sending my kids off to work independently or in centers. The short review helps them remember their goal for the activity and reminds them of what we’ve learned. These are also handy to provide as links to parents if you notice students struggling with homework. Sometimes a little reminder or review is all the students need to jump back into action!

5. Choose Engaging Centers

Last on this list of tips for teaching place value is an important one! Center time is arguably when most of our practice time occurs. This is why it’s so important to choose engaging centers. This is not the time to pull out boring worksheets and expect your kids to lock in. Trust me, it just doesn’t work! Instead, I like to use those same digital Place Value Boom Cards that I used to teach these concepts to my whole group.

This image highlights a digital hundreds chart activity that can be used when teaching place value.

I am all about repurposing in the classroom and since I use these digital task cards to teach my whole group at once, they make a perfect fit for center time. Everyone already knows how to use them and is familiar with them, which is crucial for a successful center rotation. Plus, they are no-prep! All I need to do is choose a deck, load it onto a tablet or computer and we’re good to go.

These Place Value Boom Cards are very kid-friendly as well. Each slide includes audio that reads the directions aloud. This is great for facilitating independence. And even better – they are self-checking! So if a student answers incorrectly, they will get a chance to try again. My students love the interactive nature of these cards which makes them feel more like a game than classroom work. They’re always a big hit in my classroom and such an excellent tool for practicing and teaching place value!

Make Teaching Place Value Fun

Did you notice a common theme here? Teaching place value should be fun! Whether you use digital resources, yummy snacks, or fun manipulatives – choose methods that make your kids light up with excitement. This makes all the difference in how well they retain the information and how they view math as a whole! Don’t forget, you can find my Place Value Boom Cards in my TPT shop if you’re looking for a way to include some digital learning in your lessons.

Looking for More Ways to Practice Place Value

The fun doesn’t end here friends! I’ve got another post on my favorite Valentine’s Day Math Craft for teaching place value! Head over there next to add another place value teaching tip to your toolbox!