- How to add the number in your head, if you only add 10 to 970.
- How to read the number 9,327.
- How to look at a large number and point out which one holds the ones place, the tens place, etc.
Being that she's only in first grade, I know she learns better if she can use her hands (work with manipulatives) while learning. So this morning, I made these cards:
I used my scrapbooking cutter to cut out cards. Nine of each size. The largest size has 1,000 up through 9,000. and so on.
She could go through the cards and name out each individual one. "This is seven thousand." "That one is a nine-hundred."
But was surprised to know...
...that when the cards stacked on top of each other to make a new number, it still reads the same. Seven thousand, nine hundred, seventy-six.
Then, the girls went on to make their own numbers. Just to see what they'd come up with. And though it sounds a little boring (at least it does to me), they really liked it.To stretch their brains a little more, I asked them to do certain tasks. Like create the highest four digit number possible (9,999). Or the lowest (1,000).
Or what you get when you take 8,453 and add 10. or 100.
It was no big deal for her to do because the cards easily interchange. Plus, there was no writing required on her part.
which is something that I'm finding gets old for her rather quickly. After all, you can only do so much book-work before your attention level goes ka-put!
For the first time, I think she actually enjoyed working with place values. Which is huge since I believe you can't truly commit something to long-term memory unless you
1. get a chance to work with the new concept and in some way apply it to your life, and/or
2. actually enjoy what you're dealing with.
Even Selah (4) got to learn a new concept. simply because she saw Charis having so much fun.
