Take the mystery out of place value… help children see numbers big and small!

Great alternative to MAB
Use in any class
Excellent for intervention with older children wanting to work with larger numbers
Works well in independent maths groups
Model numbers into the ten thousands
Easy to store – children can have personal sets or share larger sets

Why use Place Value Square Grid Manipulatives? In short, because its one of the best ways I’ve found to model numbers which doesn’t just encourage rote memorisation without understanding. I wouldn’t be without them in my classroom now. It’s the first thing I prepare when moving into a new class.

I see it time and time again. Children who come through my intervention program who have memorised how to make numbers with MAB but have no idea what they actually mean. This activity is designed to make children think flexibly about numbers to really understand them. They can no longer just memorise that ‘that is the shape piece they grab for that spot in the number’ but must now think about what each piece represents and why they grab it – what each digit actually means. No memorising allowed!

Place Value Number Manipulatives are so flexible that I have used them in class with children from Year 1 to Year 6 and are one of my main tools for intervention with older children struggling with place value (which is often the reason older children are struggling with maths in general). The ones pieces get small so if you plan to do them with little fingers, I encourage you to enlarge it onto A3 before making.

If you look through my shop, my activities are low prep. If you can’t prep it in a matter of minutes, it doesn’t live in my classroom! I’ll be honest, this one takes a little more time to prep. The first time you make it, it might take you 1-2 hours. But I promise you, you will use it all the time and it is so worth it! But, if you don’t want to take the time to make it yourself, why not buy a kit made for you and posted ready to use so you can start playing and learning straight away?

I recently had a year one sent to me for intervention. His teacher told me he did great in class and then bombed out on assessment and she couldn’t understand why. She asked ‘Johnny’ to build 46 with MAB. Johnny knows to grab 4 long thin sticks in 46 – or as one child recently told me, tents – but has no idea that this actually is 4 lots of ten or that the digit has a value of forty. He was grabbing 4 blocks because the number was four. My Place Value Square Grid Manipulatives show you how to make many different versions of each unit so children have to think about what is actually in the unit and what they are doing. They can no longer just memorise that that is the shape piece they grab but must now think about what each piece represents and why they grab it, digging deeper into the place value and meaning of digits.

Note: colours in kits differ from photos and might vary due to product availability.