Teaching number placement

[Cheryllou]

I got myself in a right pickle trying to help my five year old out when adding 10 consecutively. Basically she doesn't understand the placement of hundreds, tens and units, and I couldn't for the life of me explain it - she ended up counting with crayons!

Any tips on teaching this when working with a written-out sum (ie, not counting up physical objects?)

what a hard concept for a 5 year old, why are you teaching it?

use coins - 10 pennies, a 10 pence and a pound coin (and £10 note if you get that far).

For each set of 10 pennies you swap for a 10p coin, etc. So you have 10p and no pennies (10).

because her school is teaching it and i can't explain the homework!

In reception or year one they will teach this concept with solid
objects. They will use all sorts of tecniques to add and subtract 2 digit numbers so their concept of place value is secure. It's only in year 3 or 4 that they usually start traditional column methods forcthese calculations.

Place value is the mathematical term. Try googling.

Sorry just saw the post about homwork. What is it?

Thanks, that does help - I get a bit worried as she is the youngest in her class, but I thought this was too tough for a year 1 - last week they were counting birds in the garden! I think I will speak to her teacher. She was basically given a base number (say 5) then asked to keep adding 10 in a column - think the idea was she would spot a pattern, but I really don't think she took it in.

Maybe looking at a 100 square would help. There are lots online. Then she can see the patterns. Try chanting too eg 23 33 43 etc

Yup, use a hundred square, really really good for +/-.

Watching as I've often wondered how you'd teach this topic! I remember we used to use little clicky plastic squares as 'ones', and then we had sticks for 'tens' a bit like cuisinaire rods, and flat 10x10 ones for the 'hundreds'. No idea what they were called!

Dienes?

I teach place value using something like these, along with hundred squares. Physically moving the cards around and fitting the points together (e.g. getting the 20 card and the 5 card and fitting them together to make 25, then swapping the 20 for a 30 to make 35) helps
www.senteacher.org/Worksheet/47/PlaceValue.xhtml www.primaryresources.co.uk/maths/docs/place_value_cards_RR.doc
www.ictgames.com/arrowcards.html

dienes is correct! Thanks for that, what lovely memories.

Must not look any more though as DD already has numicon and cuisenaire rods

Cuisinaire rods.... A lovely primary school memory (along with my tippity crayons).

Sorry for that unhelpful little self-indulgence........

Being nosey, HeartSkipsaBeat - does your DD have trouble with maths?

OMG!! It just makes my heart sink when I see what some teachers set as homework for Year R children!!!! As Euphemia said, place value is SO crucial to mathematical understanding. It's vital that she understands that 10 isn't a 1 and a 0; it's one ten and no units - eg, nothing else. That 14 isn't a 1 and a 4, it's one ten and 4 more. i wouldn't begin place value until a child is extremely confident with counting and understand where numbers fir into the number system.Looking for a pattern on a 100 square is fine, as long as it's just that. Trying to do much more with it sounds like running before you can walk. As far as apparatus goes making groups of ten things would help her - bundles of straws, little bags of buttons,etc. Dienes and cuisinaire rods don't mean much to a reception child - just coloured rods of different lengths. Numicon is brilliant and becoming very popular in schools.

lovecheese no my DD is only 3.8 so 'having trouble with maths' isn't a relevant statement yet IYSWIM! She loves numbers and counting, and it just about ready for adding/subtracting I think.

Definitely not at place value yet though!

IS just about ready, not IT

Anyway, why d'you ask? My turn to be nosy :o

Not really relevant as your DD is much younger than my 10 year-old hater of maths. I asked because my DD has always struggled with numbers, although is quite proficient in many maths areas, and wondered if your DD was a similar age and you were using aids to help her.