Tips on Teaching Place Value?

I have a 10 y/o son with autism who has similar problems with math. Consider Addition the Fun Way at http://www.citycreek.com/addition/index.htm. Best wishes! Wanda

From their website: A refreshing alternative to the tedious method of repetition, The Times Tables and Addition the Fun Way products make learning fun by teaching with pictures and stories. This literature-based method of learning the basic facts addresses every learning style. The students visualize the picture, hear the story, and play games to reinforce the facts. Widely used by conventional first, second, and third grade teachers, these programs are also extremely effective for special education students. Specifically, students with Attention Deficit Disorder and Dyslexia have shown great success with this visually based, interactive program which appeals to visual, auditory, and tactile learning styles. Teachers and parents who are interested in helping build self esteem and increasing math scores may find this multisensory program the only thing that works for these special needs students. The products include books, clue cards, posters, magnetic math story board, workbooks, and audio tapes.

I liked the math materials you recommended and actually ordered two sets - the addition and the multiplication. I like the fact that it is literature-based - which might be perfect for my child with Non-Verbal Learning Disorder, who excels in verbal skills and auditory comprehension.

My son had this problem.
He could not read graphs, he could not find pages by following page numbers and he had trouble sequencing with questions like; What is the number before 100.

He does not have this problem at all anymore.

I did two things and I can’t say for sure which remediated this issue. I can say that it has been remediated.

Interactive metronome, which has been shown to improve sequencing issues.
The other was visual perception exercises from the book “Helping Children to Overcome Learning Difficulties.” By Jerome Rosner.

My son can now read graphs and tell you the number before 10,000.

My son had this problem.
He could not read graphs, he could not find pages by following page numbers and he had trouble sequencing with questions like; What is the number before 100.

He does not have this problem at all anymore.

I did two things and I can’t say for sure which remediated this issue. I can say that it has been remediated.

Interactive metronome, which has been shown to improve sequencing issues.
The other was visual perception exercises from the book “Helping Children to Overcome Learning Difficulties.” By Jerome Rosner.

My son can now read graphs and tell you the number before 10,000.

She has to really *get* the concept of ones and tens and hundreds using concrete counters—I like base-ten blocks. Do lots of games & activities w/them. First, let her explore and discover things about the blocks.

I take a big piece of paper and draw first two columns (one for “1’s” and one for “10’s”) Then give her a number (say, 25) and have her put the correct number of blocks in each column: two sticks of ten in the ten’s and five singles in the ones. When can do tens and ones easily, write numbers afterward. Next, increase to include hundreds column. (I don’t have many hundreds cubes 10x10 rows—they are kind of expensive. Maybe school could loan them to you for a couple of days.) If tens and ones are in place solidly, hundreds shouldn’t take that lone.

If your school curriculum wants thousands this year, then go for it. Don’t move too fast from concrete (blocks) to abstract (symbols=numbers).

BTW, you shouldn’t have to be doing this. It is a teachers job.

First we do lots of work with physical materials - a unit bead, a ten bar, a hundred square and a thousand cube. I made corresponding numbers on the computer, one card for each number: 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9 all are made in green. 10,20,30,40,50,60,70,80,90 are all in blue. 100,200.300,400,500,600,700,800,900 are in red. (I have these numbers if anyone wants them - I can email them to you). I continue up through the hundred thousands but only use those three colors. This teaches kids that the hierarchies repeat themselves. Green is for simple units, units of thousands, units of millions, etc. Blue is for tens, tens of thousands, tens of millions, etc. Red is for hundreds, hundreds of thousands, hundreds of millions, etc.

The color coding is an integral part of the work, I think, because it teaches kids that numbers are organized very easily and that all you really have to spend time learning is the unit, the ten, the hundred and the thousand. Every number within every hierarchy is composed that way. I see kids visibly relax when they visually make that realization. Suddenly, place value is demystified.

I lay out the cards in vertical columns so every card is visible. First I give the child practice counting the physical materials (I use Montessori materials but Cuisinaire has similar ones) so they understand what makes up a hundred, or a thousand of something. Many kids with place value confusion don’t really know what numbers are. They need to physically handle these materials and inspect. 100 squares make a thousand cube. They can lay one square on top of each other to prove this, etc. Then I make a number with the cards and ask child to put together that amount with the materials. I mix up my requests by sometimes putting a clump of beads, bars, squares and cubes together and ask the child to count it and make the number.

I also made a place value chart, again ala Montessori. I put little beads on the chart and have child “read” me the amt. I made. They do this by seeing which column I put the beads in. For example there might be two beads in the ten thousands column and one bead in the units of thousands column, another 3 beads in the tens column and five beads in the units column. That number would read 21,035. We do lots of this practice.

The biggest mistake teachers make, I think, no matter what the method they use, is to move too quickly through place value practice. It takes weeks, possibly months, before some kids can really understand. They have to use it constantly.

Thanks Joan! Your tips are so useful! I’d appreciate if you would send me a copy of your color-codes place value numbers. My email address is: [email protected] Thanks so much! Wanda

I sent you them, Wanda. Let me know if there’s any problem with the attachments.

In my above post, I said, “all you really have to spend time learning is the unit, the ten, the hundred and the thousand…”

I MEANT to say all you really have to spend time learning is the unit, the ten, the hundred. (Didn’t mean to say the thousand- now there’s MY LD: the tendency to fall into autopilot and not realize what I’m doing :o)

I like your ideas & would appreciate your E-Mailing me your information. I think the color coding & seeing the repetition will be a great help for my students. Thanks for your help!

I’ll be happy to do that, Linda. But there’s a glitch in my computer where my default email account doesn’t work at all so I can’t get your email by clicking on your name. So, either put your email into the body of your message where I can see it or email me so I can reply to you.

I appreciate all the terrific responses. I am printing out some of the info. you all shared now. I am sure it will all be a tremendous help.

Joan,
I printed out the place value cards onto blank business cards. They came out beautifully! I recall you mentioned using Montessori materials for counting. Can I purchase these at a teacher’s supply store? There’s a local store by me. Thanks again! Wanda

Wanda, wonderful idea about the business cards - I’m going to try it myself.

I don’t know about the teacher’s store. Montessori supplies are ridiculously expensive and usually only found through Montessori catalogs. It used to be you could only get the math materials through a catalog called Nienhuis from overseas - VERY pricey. But more recently there are folks producing much cheaper products. Do a google search under Montessori supplies or materials (as Montessorians call them). Then you might want to check out Cuisinaire to see what they have.

The good thing about the Montessori brand is the color-coding. Many of the math manipulatives follow the color theme of green for units, blue for tens, red for hundreds. It’s such a beautifully thought out program. I haven’t found anything that compares to it.