Third Graders Explore Place Value

     Our math exploration this year has begun with reviewing place value concepts and practicing place values with numbers up to 10,000.  An understanding of place value serves as a foundation for much of the math work that we will be doing this year.  When we teach computation, we don't want students who merely memorize algorithms, but rather, students who are able to apply their understanding of place value to help them work with numbers, whether using mental math to compute or when solving multi-step problems.

    Students practiced representing numbers in different ways, beginning with more concrete representations such as place value charts and base ten blocks.  They also practiced representing numbers in standard (number) form, expanded form (ex. 258= 200+50+8) and word form, all of which they initially learned in second grade.  Using these skills, students have worked on comparing numbers and completing number patterns.  We will soon be moving into addition and subtraction of numbers up to 10,000.

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    We connected our study of place value to our Social Studies theme of China.  We have been learning about the Mid-Autumn Moon Festival and have been reading stories and folktales about the moon, as well as non-fiction texts to learn about the moon.  As we have been learning about the moon, the students have been eager to find larger numbers related to moon facts.  As we have come across these numbers, they have taken turns reading the numbers out loud and writing them up on the board so that we can keep track of what we are learning and practice place value skills.