Books for Teaching Place Value in the Elementary Classroom

Most of my career, I've worked in the primary grades setting. Even the few years I worked in an upper grade classroom, I still tried to use as many math read alouds as possible.  I wanted to share a few of my favorite read alouds that I've used during my place value units. The best part is, I've used all of these books in a variety of grade levels! So let's chat about books for teaching place value! 

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Here are Three Books for Teaching Place Value in the Elementary Classroom

What's The Place Value?

This is a really easy reader. The book is really more appropriate to read to a Kindergarten or First Grade class.  I use this as my first book to introduce place value. I've used in in K-2. It's perfect in 2nd as a review of the skills students have already learned.
After reading this book, I put it back into my math bin. 

A Million Fish More or Less

This is an excellent book to teach place value skills and give students real word application. It's a bit of a stretch for students to imagine or visualize a 500 lb turkey, but it gives them the opportunity to do that! I always tie visualization in with this story. This book is also very humorous so I've been able to use it with a variety of grade levels. I've read this book to my students in 2nd- 4th grade. Also, it allows children to start to picture numbers outside of a math worksheet.  My students loved the characters and the twists throughout the story. This is a MUST have for your classroom!

Billions of Bricks

This is a great book for the students who are beginning to develop a sense of numbers. I enjoy reading this book to my Kindergarten- Second Grade students. The author does a great job of showing different counting patterns throughout the story. I love picking books that relates to different children. For me, my reluctant readers always enjoy this book!

Sir Cumference and All The Kings Tens

In this book, students get exposure to counting by tens, hundreds and thousands. Throughout this creative and fun story, students learn about grouping and how numbers work together. I use this book as a preview to our place value lesson and sometimes at the end of my lesson. I find that this series of books relates to most kids. Even my students who are not excited about reading, get excited about these books!



After our math read aloud, we go into a quick mini lesson on the skill or our math centers. I wanted to share some of my favorite math centers  for place value that we've used this year! These centers range from 1st to 4th grade!

Math read alouds are so important to developing a strong mathematical foundation and it never hurts to read to children more! I hope these books for teaching place value help you in your classroom!

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My Journey as an Upper Elementary Teacher

Hi Friends! 

So, we've been SO busy the last 10 weeks that I haven't had a chance to mention all of the changes that have happened. We ended school in VA on June 20th. We packed all of our belongings up on the 21st and moved south on the 25th! We spent most of July by traveling and visiting family before we finally settled in. I started my new job on July 25th! So we had a very brief, but fun summer! I was pretty nervous about making the jump from my comfort zone (primary grades) to the big, scary world of fourth grade! We are only three eight weeks in, and can I tell you how much I LOVE THE BIG KIDS??!?!? They get my personality, they roll with the punches, and most of all, they still LOVE SCHOOL!! For some reason, I had it in my head that they do not like school past third grade! I was WRONG! They are witty, quick and just plain fun. They get my weird personality. Fourth grade is a whole new world, but man, I'm loving it so far!

Here's a peak inside my new classroom!

Give students a visual aide of expectations. 

My students really needed some math intervention in order to close foundational gaps I was finding in their number sense skills.  We spend a lot of time on place value skills so that they really understand how to break apart larger numbers. 

These activities were so great for small groups! My students practiced building numbers. When I came to the intermediate grades, I wanted to bring the mindset with me that students still needed to use manipulatives in math.

I found these jumbo post it pads at Target and we put them to use right away! We started our vocabulary maps before reading. We defined the word and discussed it's meaning. I encouraged them to point out when they come across the word in the text. During reading, if the students find the word, they would write the "example from the text". Next, the students would finish reading. After reading, they would identify a synonym and antonym of the word.

In this activity, students are using colored dominoes to build numbers. They can practice building numbers and place value skills literally everyday and develop a different number each day! 

We've had a blast so far and I'm excited to share this journey with you. Since I've not had as much time (like that exists), I've been sharing a lot on my Instagram  and Facebook pages on what we've been doing.

Since my Facebook page has grown so much, I've teamed up with my amazing friends Michelle and Fern to bring you some awesome prizes!

I will have TWO winners!
a Rafflecopter giveaway

**Please Note***
The rafflecopter is not accepting entries for everyone, so you may comment on this post that you follow me on FB and TpT to enter!








Go visit my friends, Michelle and Fern, for a chance to win more prizes. Make sure you follow all of our Facebook pages because we will each announce the winners on our Facebook page.

Number Sense Activities

Hey friends! I wanted to take a moment to catch up what my firsts have been up to! Our curriculum is big on spiral review. We touch on number sense at the beginning of the year but really dive deep in Jan/Feb. Our math benchmark test ALWAYS hits on number sense, so I feel like my kids are ALWAYS doing number sense activities! 

We started working on Place Value right away. This is a skill we will continue to work on the rest of the school year. The kids loved making these little books! 

These little books are perfect for homework or center work! After I taught the kiddos how to use them, they were able to complete them independently! 

The Place Value books focus on expanded form, word form and recognizing numerals. Once we made a one together, my first graders were able to do these for morning work or during guided math.

This activity for a whole group lesson or a review! 

How Does Guided Math Look in My Classroom?

We typically do a whole group lesson on Monday with Guided Math the rest of the week. Our whole group lesson is based on the target skill that we are learning about. I use our pacing guide to determine which skill that is. I introduce the skill with a math read aloud. Then, our class creates an anchor chart over the skill. Sometimes I pre make the bones of the anchor chart but I make sure to fill in the meat of the skill with the students. This helps to reinforce the skill in their minds. They remember creating the anchor chart and will remember to look at it more often if they were apart of creating it. My favorite anchor chart to create with the students are the ones for telling time.

Using Math Centers During Guided Math

 I have four tables. Instead of the kiddos rotating, the baskets rotate. I pick a helper at the beginning of every two week period. The helpers are responsible for overlooking the baskets to make sure everything is in it's place. Then, the helpers rotate the baskets upon my command. This runs like a well oiled machine. The kids know EXACTLY what to do. I usually do two centers as the target skill of the week and two centers that are spiral review. That way the students are consistently practicing previous taught standards or skills.

The centers are a great way to prepare for our end of the year assessment because they cover skills taught all year long!

The students work with each math tub for 15-20 minutes a day..depending on my schedule that day. I plan all of my centers out for the week using my Guided Math Binder! 

I try to include as many hands on things as I can. However, sometimes, real world sets in. I use math word searches to minimize prep work. I use these as printable. I've also ran a set that is laminated and the kids use as wipe on/off mats. For differentiation, some students will use each word in a meaningful sentence. This can be challenging, but I encourage my students to try to demonstrate that they understand the meaning of each word.

This is how my math tubs look prior to rotating.  This is counting center where students have to correctly count the number of objects on the task card.

One of my kids favorite activities is Skip Counting Puzzles! I love using these puzzles because I can differentiate it really easily! All students appear to be doing the same activity, but I specifically plan out which students are doing which puzzles.
If you wanted to give printable skip counting puzzles a try, I thought you could try this freebie!

Just click HERE to get your FREEBIE!

The centers shown come from my  Number Sense BUNDLE! This bundle includes SO many activities to help get your kiddos ready for benchmarks or number sense assessments! I use these centers all throughout the year as a spiral review. It's great because they are low prep and  engaging! my students really enjoy these centers!

Back To School Rush

Hey friends. I'm kinda of *stressing out*. We officially go back August 20th...that's not that long way, so I should be enjoying the last few weeks of summer...right?!?! Well, I would be, but my entire classroom is in boxes..on our STAGE!! They had to do some work in and around my classroom, so I had to pack everything up! And I'm totally worried about not having enough time to get it ready..but I gotta quit stressing' and hand it over to God. That's my plan. I'll let you know how that works haha!

So in the meantime, I've been working on things from home that I know I'll need. One classroom management system I wanted to implement is checkpoint take home folders.  In our district, we give checkpoints for Math, Science and Social Studies. I wanted an easy way to document that parents were aware of these scores.  I made these little folders for each student so that I had a quick and easy way to send home grades.  I added these to an existing product, my Classroom Forms Mega Binder. The ones shown use SOL's, but if you are not in VA, I've included a blank one to fit your needs :)

Grading System and Documentation 

Check out my Classroom Forms Mega Binder!

Classroom Decor  

My next little project is a little cosmetic surgery to my old "catch all" bin :) I just used Chevron Duct Tape that I found at Target for $1.99 in the Back To School section!!

After that, I redid my table caddies. I found these little dolls at Wal Mart for $3.00!!! I use so many of Erica's Chevron resources, so I just used a little washi tape and her Bright-Chevron-Table-Signs! I LOVE how they turned out! 

You can check out Erica's Labels Right Here!!!

Now I'm on a mission to add to me ever so growing center  collection! 

I'm lovin' my  latest creation--Back To School Literacy and Math Fun! It's loaded! This one shown is an ABC Order activity! My kiddos always love these! 

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I gave my Place Value Centers a little face lift!

I was cutting these out and my little one said he wanted to put them together--I was kinda of shocked..but I said "sure, go right on ahead"!!! He loved them! 

My little Trixie girl decided to get in the action! 

Trixie girl is holding down the fort with our Place Value Centers. 

Thanks for stopping by!