A place value game is an educational game that helps reinforce and develop the concept of place value. Place-value games are a fun way to help students understand what digits they’re using, how numbers become increasingly more difficult as they grow more extensive, and how a column of numbers can be reordered, all at the same time! Plus, since number sense is essential in math, these interactive games are great tools for developing number sense.
Place value games may be used as a teaching tool or as a way to measure students’ comprehension of concepts. They can be played as an individual activity, with a partner, or in small groups. These games can also be used to determine the most appropriate strategy for teaching specific concepts in place of value.
The best way to find ideas for place value games is to research each state’s standards. This will help you decide which place-value game is appropriate for your particular school. It has a section on place value games and is an excellent resource for teachers and students alike.
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1. Turn Paint Samples into Place Value Sliders
Choosing from the five digits is a basic skill that all children should master in elementary school. Use this game and learn about place value as part of an array of number-related activities. The paint sliders can be used to teach place value or can supplement other number-related skills.
2. Show It Four Ways
This is another basic skill that should be mastered in elementary school. Use this game to reinforce place value concepts or as part of an array of number-related activities.
Number sense is important in math, but counting with the fingers and toes to help small children learn their numbers.
learn more: https://www.weareteachers.com/place-value-activities/
3. Make a Pillbox into a Manipulator for Manipulating Place Values
Pillboxes, those little containers you get when you go to the doctor, are a great way to transform into a place value manipulative. This activity or similar variations can be used as a classroom activity or as a take-home lesson for parents.
4. Stack Place Value Cheerio Towers
Cheerios are a staple in most homes. Use this game as part of a place value unit or simply have students create their own designs.
5. Visualize Place Value with a Foldable
Take a part of your standard place value paper and fold it into a box. Use the foldable to support learning and as a valuable tool when working with different groups of children.
6. Place Value Counting Tiles
Number sense, like so many other subjects, can be reinforced with creative and fun activities. One way to do this is by counting sequences using sliding tiles. Have students work in pairs or small groups and count by grouping, tens, or ones in each group.
7. The Dustbin Game
This is another essential skill that should be mastered in elementary school. Use this game to reinforce place value concepts or as part of an array of number-related activities.
Number sense is essential in math, but so is counting with the fingers and toes to help small children learn their numbers.
Place value can also be combined with other topics like number sense, money, shapes, and addition and subtraction.
8. Construct a Tower of Base Ten Blocks
Using base ten blocks to model the number system is a powerful way for children to understand the concept of place value. This activity provides an opportunity for children to create a structure with base of ten blocks and then use it as a visual representation of place value.
learn more: https://www.ashleigh-educationjourney.com/math-station-monday-place-value/
9. Build a House of Cards
Constructing card houses is good practice for addition and subtraction. Children can also represent numbers using the house model in various ways, such as by having different colored playing cards or beads beneath each floor.
10. Calculate the Place Value of Your Given Name
Use this game to reinforce place value concepts or as part of an array of number-related activities.
An opportunity for students to practice the number names for the digits 1–10 and learn about place value.
11. Stack some Paper Cups
Use this game to reinforce place value concepts or as part of an array of number-related activities.
12. Make and Cut a Place Value Book
Use this game to reinforce place value concepts or as part of an array of number-related activities.
Bracelets are great for practicing math concepts and practicing responses. In addition, bracelets help students practice motor skills by having them move their hands and arms while doing math. This activity is an opportunity to develop that type of motor skill.
13. Build Place Value Bugs
Horn is a credit card with beads. The beads are on the outer horn edge and divided into twenty equal sections. Cards may be made from cardboard or laminated for longer-lasting use.
learn more: https://planningplaytime.com/place-value-worksheets/
14. Place Value Color Wheels
This game is especially useful for children who have difficulty reading number words or counting large numbers. It’s ideal during the early years of learning to count and can be used in many other ways as well.
15. Shoot for the Target with LEGO Bricks
Build and play with a huge variety of LEGO bricks. In this game, children can build a “banana,” match more than one color, build another kind of building block, and more. The game even includes four different problem solvers to help the little ones solve number problems.
learn more: https://www.weareteachers.com/lego-math/
16. Build Place Value Blocks
In addition to numerical facts, this game is beneficial for youngsters who are learning about place value and recognition all at the same time. It helps to reinforce the knowledge of separating huge numbers into smaller pieces, as well as to memorize numbers, which is particularly useful when counting by twos or tens.
17. Build with LEGO Bricks
Placed emphasis on shapes and patterns and how many there are. Use the three-digit number: one hundred twenty-five. Have children count the number of bricks in each shape so they can estimate the total number of bricks in that shape, as well as total all the numbers associated with that shape.
learn more: https://www.teach-me-mommy.com/learn-place-value-with-building-blocks/
18. Act out Multiplying and Dividing
Place value is a part of the five-digit basis problem when students are in third grade. At first, most students may have difficulty understanding more than just the concept of “multiplication” and “division” by manipulating place values. The following game can be used to reinforce counting and place value practices.
learn more: https://teacherthrive.com/PowersOfTen/
19. Place Value War
This game can be used with numbers up to 100. Simply add the place value of each number, then write the answer down on another sheet of paper. The student will take turns from one to the next and have 10 seconds to correctly identify the number’s place value in each row.
20. Build a Number
This game can be used for numbers up to 100. Ask the student to build a number from 1-to 10 by adding and subtracting the digits in sequential order, beginning with the one’s place.
21. Tracking Days In School
To assist little children who are having difficulty keeping track of their days at school, we’ve created this activity. When you play Yahtzee, you are playing a traditional dice game. The pupils take turns rolling the dice and keeping track of the days. Following the roll, they will compare their number to the number assigned by their instructor. The pupil who had the most productive day at school wins.
learn more: https://jillianstarrteaching.com/teaching-place-value/
22. Send them on a Scavenger Hunt
Place value is the basis of good math education, so this game allows students to practice looking for patterns in multi-digit numbers. It’s part of an array of number-related activities that can help them grasp this important topic.
learn more: https://www.primarythemepark.com/2017/02/place-value-games-for-first-grade/
23. Shake Things up with Yahtzee
A great group activity, this game lets everyone have fun while they learn about place value. Use this game as part of an array of number-related activities.
You can download the PowerPoint presentation for this activity here.
learn more: https://www.games4gains.com/blog/place-value-yahtzee
24. Take a Journey on the Place Value Path
The Place Value Path can be used to help students master place value. The path can be adapted for students in many grades, including kindergarten and early elementary.
learn more: https://www.themeasuredmom.com/free-place-value-games-for-k-2/
25. Rolling Place Value
Use dice and a game board to practice place value with your students. This activity is part of an array of number-related activities to help them grasp this important topic.
learn more: https://thesprinkletoppedteacher.com/2021/05/roll-and-write-dice-place-value-game.html
26. Rainbow Jenga Block Game Math
A variation on the normal Jenga game with addition and subtraction to practice the concepts of place value.
learn more: https://www.schooltimesnippets.com/2019/03/rainbow-maths-place-value-activity.html
27. Use Nuts and Bolts to Learn Place Value
This game works well with a small group of students and can be used to introduce place value or is part of an array of number-related activities.
28. Number Rods Practice Place Value
Use these rods to reinforce place value or as part of an array of number-related activities.
Clothespins add the column for place value practice or aid in addition and subtraction problems. Use this game with a small group or individually in pairs.
learn more: http://www.familyfecs.com/2014/05/addition-with-number-rods-unit-place.html
29. Learn with Rainbow Math
Much of learning is based on pattern recognition. The more patterns kids see, the better they are able to discern new patterns.
learn more: http://www.housingaforest.com/rainbow-math-game/
30. Make Giant Ones and Tens Blocks
Building with blocks is very popular with children, and it can be a great way to introduce counting and number sense.
learn more:
31. Trace Numbers and Build Number Sense
This is a fun game that builds on the concept of tracing numbers in the air when you say them. Children will learn the names of the numbers as they exercise their bodies by writing them in the air.
32. Cut a Pool Noodle into Tens and Ones
This is an excellent game for building number sense. Children can practice counting and pattern recognition.
33. Solve a Place Value Puzzle
Place value concepts allow students to determine whether numbers are working numbers (no zeros, no placeholders), scaling digits (digits that do not change when a number is multiplied or divided by a power of ten, or that are added or subtracted when a number is changed to a different numeral system), and surprising digits (digits that look the same as other digits but have a different value). Use this game in conjunction with learning about place value as part of an array of number-related activities.
learn more: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I6qVBPpmbCA
34. Complete a Place Value Maze
This game reinforces place value concepts and helps students visualize the relationships between numbers used in other number activities. It can be used as part of an array of number-related activities or to describe place value concepts to students.
Students can use their own methods, but this game can help them learn new methods and compare their different answers.
learn more: https://mathgeekmama.com/place-value-mazes/
35. Walk along Giant Number Lines
This game reinforces the concept that numbers on the left side of a number line are smaller than numbers on the right side.
In this game, students move their stands along a giant number line, using their left and right hands to “hold” the positive and negative units. As they move, they count with their mouths. A student who knows all his or her numbers from zero through twenty can be blindfolded and asked to show her mouth where each of these numbers is located on the number line.
learn more: https://handsonaswegrow.com/number-line-activity-place-values/