10 Easy Ways to Practice Place Value at Home

Learning place value is a foundational skill children need to be successful in math. Teachers often note that refreshing students’ place value skills is important. This is because understanding place value helps children to build more complex skills as they grow. Practicing place value at home can help to keep your child ready to tackle whatever new math awaits them in the classroom. Practicing math at home with movement and song can be rewarding. Our My Signing Time subscribers love Practice Time 1, 2, 3. It is a fun series available on our My Signing Time App that practices ASL Number Vocabulary and basic math skill building. While place value is something we use every day, finding ways to practice it is not always easy. Here are 10 classroom ideas from teachers that can easily adapted to your home.

1. Build a Paper Cup Stack

Grab a stack of reusable paper cups. Number them from 0 to 9 on the visible edge. Then stack the cups in various configurations. Discuss place value as you stack and restack the cups. We first saw this refreshing and affordable idea at the Imagination Tree.

2. Build Place Value with Legos

Legos are a truly amazing toy. Did you know that you can use a dry erase marker on them? It works! Simply write number values on your legos with a dry erase marker. Then when you are done you can simply wipe the numbers away. Check out this great tutorial from Teach Me Mommy.

3. Play Uno with a Place Value Twist

We love learning through play. Uno is a childhood staple. If you have a deck of Uno cards at home, the next time you play introduce this fun game. It is a variation on a classic game of war. It will help your child sharpen their math skills while you enjoy family time. Learn how to play from Childhood 101.

4. Have a Scavenger Hunt

This fun idea from Primary Theme Park is another way to use what you already have on hand. For this game you just need to grab a stack of old magazines, old mail, newspaper, food labels. The printable linked here is free to use. While it is designed for the classroom it works just as well at home.

5. Play Yahtzee

Games for Gains shares a super fun spin on Yahtzee. In this game they slightly change the game to add math skill building to this scoring of this classic game. You can download the free printable scoresheet here. Next just grab a few pencils, your dice, and a bin to shake your dice in.

6. Bug Out with a Fly Swatter

Do you have fly swatter at home? If not this game might make you want to head out and buy one. Creekside Learning shares a fun way to practice place value by laying out tape grid and having your child swat numbers with a fly swatter. This indoor activity is sure to include lots of giggles.

7. Bean Bags and Bins for the Place Value Win

Bean bags and bins are a great way to practice hand eye coordination. With this fun Idea from Saddle Up for Learning you can also build bath fluency! This is a great way to bring math outside. Fresh air and sunshine are pretty addition to any learning game.

8. Walk Along Giant Number Lines

All you need to get started with this great idea from Hands on as We Grow is a painters tape, paper plates, and a deck of cards. It’s another fun way to get moving while talking about math.

9. Build a Rainbow

School Time Snippets has incorporated on of our favorite things, rainbows, into math learning. This hands on activity teaches tens and ones by using colorful ringed cereal and pipe cleaners! While we prefer to eat rainbow salad enjoying a sugary sweet cereal can be a fun indulgence. Don’t forget to practice your color vocabulary in ASL while you build your rainbows!

10. Bingo Math Free Printable

Our final find is this fun free printable from The Measured Mom. This printable is a fun take on the classic of bingo. All you will need is the printable, dice and a way to mark your spaces. When you get 5 in a row, you win!

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