Know Your Place Values

Introduction

• Begin the Know Your Place slideshow. Briefly go over the place values on slide 1, then go on to slide 2.
• Divide students into equal groups, and hand each group a set of Place Value Card Sort strips.
• Give groups five minutes to organize their cards into the correct order.
• Allow volunteers to come up to the board and manipulate the images on the slide. Each time a student makes an incorrect arrangement, reveal a hint—e.g. the Millions cards belong on the far left.
• Keep going until the cards are placed in the correct order.
• Explain that the cards the class just ordered are place values, or positions that digits have within a number. The decimal place is where the decimal point goes; it marks the boundary between units (ones place numbers) from decimals (numbers smaller than 1).
• Have students watch the Finding a Number’s Place Value video.
• Conduct a quick Q&A session after the video to make sure students are up to speed.