The Brown Bag Teacher

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Place Value Bootcamp – 1st Grade

Place Value Boot Camp: a place where there is significant amount of whistling, yelling, and push-ups …all in the name of learning, of course. If you’re ready to create a hands-on and memorable place-value experience? If so, Place Value Boot Camp is for you and your students. 
To get started I snagged a bandana from Wal-Mart for $1, a pair of aviators from a co-workers, and my first official teacher-whistle from Wal-Mart, as well. Once you have your props ready, it’s action time!
This awesome experience was inspired by The Teacher Tipster’s awesome place value chant. If you’re not familiar with The Teacher Tipster, he has some of the most fabulous and engaging lessons for little people. He is like the Ron Clark of Primary Land!

To build suspense for the day, I told my students that I had a meeting and they would have a guest teacher to pick them up from specials. So, Sgt. W picked up my friends from PE and marched them back to the classroom. My kids were in SHOCK and tried to conceal their giggles with serious faces.
Before beginning with the core of our lesson, I introduced some basic ‘military vocabulary’ (atten hut, about face, etc) and we practiced marching. Then, we learned the “Talls and Smalls” chant from Teacher Tipster. Then, I called cadets forward to the carpet. I then told them if they were talls (tens) or smalls (ones). Then, as a class, we counted the number in front of the class. 
As we practiced, we sang “First you add up all the tens…” (10, 20, 30, 40) “Then, you add up all the ones..” (41, 42, 43, 44, 45). “What number, friends?” “45!”
The cadets that weren’t modeling the numbers in front of the class, used EXPO markers to track the numbers in a tens/ones chart on their tables. Then, students wrote the expanded form for each number (Note – we haven’t introduced this vocabulary yet…that will come later!)
Our boot camp session would not have been complete without push-ups, right?! I would highlight a number on our SPLAT Board and tell students to “Drop and give me the number of tens/ones in _____!” <insert blowing of whistle>

About three-fourths of the way through boot camp, I awarded each student with their own dog tag. I picked up 2 sets of dog tags from Party City the night before and they were the perfect memento from our day.

On the back of each dog tag I wrote a different number better 0 and 99, as well as, each student’s last name. I had the cadets organize themselves from least to greatest (Whoa! This was a tough skill we definitely still need to practice). Then, we played the “Drop and give me 10 game” (Don’t you love that 6-year olds think everything is a game??). I could call out a number “If you have a 5/6/7 in the ones/tens place, drop and give me 10.” This was great practice in identifying the digits in different numbers. Plus, it was easy to check as students were standing in numerical order.

To cap off Place Value Boot Camp, we enjoyed a Place Value solve-the-room by Susan at Thank God it’s First Grade. It was the perfect chance for students to practice counting tens/one, as well as, for me to meet with a small-group of friends who needed extra practice. Since I had already introduced expanded form, I did ask students to draw the model, write the expanded form, as well as, the final number. You can grab the hunt from Susan here and the recording sheet I adapted here.


Well friends, it was one of those most-perfect 1st grade days. It was full of magic and laughter and great place-value practice. After our Boot Camp, it was time to go to the Mess Hall for lunch. When I picked my friends back up in the cafeteria, they were SO excited to tell me all about Sgt. W. 😉  Oh to be six…

After our snow days, we’ll continue practicing place value and pull out some of the ideas I used 2 years ago with my student teaching class. When I finally have my kids back, I’ll share pictures of our place value work!

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