Third Grade Math

This week I found myself in a third grade classroom, teaching a lesson on place value. In the math manipulatives box I found place value dice, with two sets of four dice: a die for the one's place, a die for the ten's place, a die for the hundred's place, and a die for the thousand's. place.

First, I rolled out the six feet wide table top PreKeys mat, then I invited two students to come over to the table. I showed each how to roll the dice, then line them up in place value order. Then, I invited them to poke or slap the shapes on the number row of the keyboard that matched the numbers on the dice. The most interesting part was when they forgot to poke the zero; for instance, one student rolled the dice for 2056 but only poked the 2, the 5 and the 6. I had to remind the student to poke the 2, the 0, the 5 and the 6.

Using the class roll I then called the next two students over to the table. The first two students were instructed to show the next two students how to roll the dice, line them up in place value order and then poke the numbers that match the numbers on the dice. We continued this activity until every student had an opportunity to participate.