Place Value Patterns
Okay I really think we might be getting close. We are two weeks into this and we are learning and exploring and taking the time to really understand the importance of Place Value. 
Today I wrote this on the whiteboard, and asked them to discuss with somebody next to them, what patterns they see. Most everyone noticed that more zeros are added on from right to left. So I ask them why? Which led to groups of ten, or multiply by ten, to get to the next place value. Solid understanding.
Remember yesterday I said I would sow some scientific notation seeds. So this pattern discussion easily led to a bit on an understanding of it, and you can see in my scribbles in red above the original blue notes.
This was a little over some of the heads of my second graders, which was fine for me. I don’t think everyone needs to know everything all the time. Connections might be made later, my responsibility sometimes is just to put some hooks in their brains so that new knowledge has somewhere to hang or it might fall off, aka schema hooks.
We also talked about patterns on our Hundred Number Board.
So many strong lightbulbs blinked on as they saw the pattern of the tens place increasing/decreasing as we move up and down. Yeah! They know why, and can really understand how to use this manipulative. (I have several laminated so students can use whiteboard markers on them).
I had two new stations today. One was for < > review, using place value. Working with a partner, you each turn over a card, build the number with the straws (an extension from last week’s station), and then place the < > the correct way.
The other station, for most of my third graders, is to make an array book. Roll two dice and make each of the arrays, by coloring onto a piece of grid paper, cut it out, and glue it into the book.
Also each student had some new place value worksheets in their folder.
At the end of class time, some partners shared their 1000 model, from last week’s assignments.
Thanks for reading along this journey!
– Evil Math Wizard
Day 1 – Place Value Introduction
Day 2 – Place Value Making Groups Part 1
Day 3 – Place Value Making Groups Part 2
Day 4 – Place Value Tens and Hundreds
Day 5 – Place Value Up to Millions
Day 6 – Place Value Reading and Saying Numbers
Day 7 – Why Learn about Place Value