How to Teach Base Ten to Third Graders
The concept of "base ten" represents our place-value system and is the foundation upon which the rest of mathematics is built. Third-graders, who are beginning to learn multidigit addition and subtraction, as well as multiplication and division, must understand place value in order to be successful. Third-graders can best learn this abstract concept by playing games and using manipulatives, such as base ten blocks. A simple trading game using base ten blocks makes a great introduction to teaching base ten to third-graders.
Instructions
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Prepare an 11-by-17-inch sheet of paper with three columns. These will be the game boards. Label the left column with a picture of a flat object, label the middle column with a picture of a rod, and label the column on the right with a picture of a small cube. You may also choose to label the columns "hundreds," "tens," and "ones," respectively.
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Divide the third-graders into pairs or groups of three, if necessary. Each student will need one 11-by-17-inch game board, and each pair or group will need one die and plenty of base ten blocks. The first player rolls the die, then takes that number of cubes and places them on the game board in the cubes, or "ones," column. The other players take their first turns in the same way.
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On the second turn, the first player rolls the die and again takes the corresponding number of cubes. She again places the cubes in the "ones" column of the game board. However, if the player now has more than ten cubes, she trades in ten cubes for one rod. For example, if she rolled a six on both turns, earning a total of twelve cubes, she would now have one rod in the rods, or "tens," column and two cubes in the "ones" column. The other players take their second turns in the same way.
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The players continue rolling the die on each turn and placing the appropriate number of cubes on the "ones" column of their game boards. Whenever they accumulate ten cubes in the "ones" column, they trade them in for one rod in the "tens" column. When they accumulate ten rods, they trade them in for one flat object in the "hundreds" column. The first player to accumulate five flat objects, or reach 500, wins.
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After students have played this game at least once before, have one person from each team record the number of flats/rods/cubes each one has on a sheet of graph paper. After each turn, the players can write down how much their blocks represent in numbers. Encourage them to use the lines on the graph paper to separate the place values.
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Tips & Warnings
As the third-graders are playing the game, circulate through the room and ask them to tell you how much their blocks represent.
If it takes too long for students to reach 500, make the object of the game to reach 200.
