Growth Point 2
Place Value Growth Points activities
The tasks listed on the following pages are rich tasks from various sources that may be used with multi-level groups or students who are working at a particular level.
2. Reading, writing, interpreting and ordering two-digit numbers
Can read, write, interpret and order two-digit numbers.
Sticky labels
Materials: Adhesive labels with two-digit numbers printed on them.
Activity: Teacher places individual sticky-notes on the back of each student. Students walk around the room and find a partner. Students ask each other questions about their number. The questions must be asked in a way that the answer can only be ‘yes’ or ‘no’. Teachers may like to pause the game to brainstorm a list of questions that students use. You may also like to sort these questions into questions that give you a lot of information and those which don’t, and then re-try. Once all of the students know their numbers, ask questions such as, ‘Find another student who has a number that is 1 more/less than you’ or ‘10 more/less’.
Related key ideas: Quantity.
Variation: Ask students to form groups of three to five and order themselves from largest to smallest. Can the students find the largest or smallest total? Can they find the largest or smallest difference?
Three in a row number line
Materials: Dice, blank cards, blank number line.
Activity: Students take turns to roll a dice to create a two-digit number which they record on a blank card. They then decide where this card belongs on their blank number line and place it. The aim of the game is to keep playing until they have placed three numbers in a row without being blocked. Discuss what range of numbers can be generated and how they can be placed proportionally on the number line.
Related key ideas: Quantity, digit position, place-value partitioning, comparison.
Where might it go?
Materials: Dice, blank cards, 10 × 10 blank grid.
Activity: Students roll a dice and record a two-digit number on their blank card. In turns, students place their card onto the blank grid. Teacher asks questions such as, ’What do you know about this number?’ ‘What other numbers might you see in the same column or row?’ Ask other students to add their number to the grid, then ask, ‘What information did you use to place your number down?’.
Related key ideas: Quantity, digit position, base-10 system.
Variation: Extend task to three- or four-digit numbers.
Where is it?
Materials: Number cards, benchmark number cards (e.g. 0, 10, 50, 100).
Activity: Place benchmark number cards in the four corners of the learning space. Place the other number cards face-down in the middle of the room. Students pick up one of the cards from the centre of the room and choose which Benchmark card they will go and stand near. Discuss, ‘Why did you choose to stand near that card?’, ‘How did you know that this was the closest benchmark to your number?’.
Related key ideas: Quantity, digit position, comparison.
Variation: Use three- and four-digit numbers.
Race to 100
Materials: Icy-pole sticks, rubber band, dice.
Activity: Students take turns to roll a dice to determine how many icy-pole sticks they will collect. Each time they reach 10, they use a rubber band to create a ‘bundle’. First student to reach 10 bundles or 100 wins.
Related key ideas: Quantity, base-10 system.
Connect four
Materials: One activity card per student, two dice, counters.
Activity: Students take turns to roll two dice. Students decide which two-digit number the dice will make (e.g. if a 3 and 4 are rolled, students decide if this is 34 or 43) and then cover the corresponding box on their card with a counter. The first student to cover four squares in a row (horizontally, vertically or diagonally) wins.
Related key ideas: Digit position.
Numbers up
Materials: Pack of playing cards with only cards 1 to 9 included (Ace =1).
Activity: Each student is dealt two cards and uses these to make a two-digit number. The person with the highest number collects all of the cards for that round. Continue playing until all of the cards in the pack are used. The student with the greatest number of cards wins.
Related key ideas: Digit position, quantity.
Variation: Aim to make the lowest number using the two cards.
Odds and evens
Materials: Pack of playing cards with only cards 1 to 9 included (Ace =1).
Activity: Each student is dealt two cards and uses these to make a two-digit number. The person with the highest number collects all of the cards for that round. Continue playing until all of the cards in the pack are used. The student with the greatest number of cards wins.
Related key ideas: Digit position, quantity.
Variation: Aim to make the lowest number using the two cards.
Ice cream bundles again
Materials: Icy-pole sticks, rubber bands, two dice.
Activity: Students take turns to roll both dice and calculate the total, and then collect that number of icy-pole sticks from the centre pile. When they are able to, they combine ten sticks into a bundle with a rubber band and place them to one side. After a set time (e.g. 10 minutes) students total their piles by counting by tens and find the greatest number. Individual totals may be combined to calculate a group total.
Related key ideas: Quantity, base-10 system.
Jigsaw
Materials: Counting charts that have been laminated and cut into jigsaw pieces. Each piece should have three to five numbers on it.
Activity: Students are given a jigsaw that they need to put back together. Teachers should prompt students to notice different patterns they see emerging and then articulate the features of a counting chart that will support them in piecing it back together.
Related key ideas: Digit position, base-10 system.
Variation: Create jigsaws from atypical counting charts. For instance, don’t start at 0, or do counting in multiples of 2, 5 and so on. Counting charts using ranges in three-digit or four-digit numbers can also be used.
Chonks
Materials: Playdough, plastic bowl, toothpicks, 2 dice both numbered 1, 1, 2, 2, 3, 3.
Activity: Chonks are small animals from the far planet of Chonk Rock. The Chonk population is under threat on its own planet and they have moved to Earth in search of new parents to help them rebuild their numbers. Chonks grow inside an egg (the plastic bowl) and are only hatched when they are completely formed with their ten legs. The students must accept the challenge of becoming a Chonk parent to complete this activity. Once a group of ten Chonks is formed, they become known as a Chonk Pod and they can safely travel back to live on Chonk Rock once again.
Begin with twenty playdough balls already formed inside a plastic bowl. In order to ‘hatch’ the Chonks, students must roll the two dice and use the two digits to make the smallest number possible (e.g. if they roll 1 and 2, make 12 not 21). They can then add this number of legs (toothpicks) onto a growing Chonk inside the egg. Once a Chonk has ten legs, it ‘hatches’ and the student becomes its parent. Once a student has responsibility for ten Chonks (a Chonk Pod), the Chonks can safely travel back to Chonk Rock and the game ends.
Related key ideas: Quantity, base-10 system.