Place Value Using Base Ten Blocks (Lesson 1 of 18)

This lesson plan, from the Contextualize to Learn project at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, is an exploration done with base-ten blocks. In this activity, students are paired up and work with base-ten blocks to show that the four digits of a four-digit natural number represents amounts of thousands, hundreds, tens, and ones respectively starting from the leftmost position in the number. Students summarize that in a multi-digit number, a digit in one place represents ten times what it represents in the place to its right. This lesson plan includes both student and instructor notes. Additional lessons in the series are available to view separately. This lesson requires the following manipulatives: Base-Ten blocks.

The expected total time for the lesson is fifty-five minutes.