Use the place value structure to represent, read, write, and compare numbers to 1,000.

Activity 1: Make the Biggest Number Game

This is super simple, but a great way to check whether or not your kids are understanding place value!

Grab a deck of cards and remove the face cards. Ace is 1, or you can remove the aces too if that’s easier. This is a great two player game. Each player draws three cards. Arrange your cards to make the greatest 3-digit number you can! Then the player with the larger number gets to keep all 6 cards.

When the deck runs out (it won’t divide evenly), see which player has the most cards!

Activity 2: Number Words to Digits

A good test of whether or not kids understand place value is whether or not they can translate number words to digits. Make some number word cards out of index cards and magnetic tape.

Be sure to choose some numbers that have a 0 in the tens digit, like four hundred five.

It’s correct grammar to write the number without “and,” unless the “and” is marking the decimal point. Write a couple with “and," and then most of the cards did not have the “and.” You can choose how you’ll do it!

You can also put the cards on a white board and write the numbers with dry erase marker! Always more fun than pencil and paper.

Apply strategies to solve real-life addition and subtraction problems with numbers within 1,000.

Work with equal groups to gain foundations for multiplication through real-life problems. 

Activity 1:

Find any small items from around the house. Examples: cereal, marshmallows, marbles, legos, etc. Have your child split up the small items into equal groups. Then, write down the repeated addition equation and multiplication equation to match the objects.

Activity 2:

Materials: muffin pan, small objects or food (marshmallows, cereal), dice or deck of cards

Have your child roll the dice or flip over a number card to see how many of muffin tins they will be filling. Then they will roll again to see how many items they are putting in each tin. They will create a repeated addition and multiplication equation to match. Students can skip count by the number of items in each cup to help them find their answer.

Activity 3:

Materials: cereal or marshmallows, dice

Use cereal or marshmallows to build arrays. Discuss with your child rows and columns. Rows go horizontal; for example, a row you sit on in a stadium or at a movie theater. A column is vertical; for example outside at the front of the White House. Have your child roll a dice to determine how many rows they are creating and then again to determine how many columns. Have them build the array with the small item and then create the repeated addition equation and multiplication equation.

Identify, describe, extend, and create repeating patterns, growing patterns, and shrinking patterns. 

Activity 1: SPLAT PATTERNS

Materials: Play-Doh

Get your child to try and make balls of dough and then put them out in a line. The idea is that you splat one ball (press it down), miss the next, then splat the next, miss one…and so on. You will make a fantastic visual pattern, that is brilliant for kinaesthetic learners because it’s so hands on.

You could extend this in lots of different ways, including:

• Make more complex patterns, such as splat two, miss one, splat two, miss one…

• Use something like dough shape stampers to splat the dough. It could go triangle, square, triangle, square…

Activity 2: Building with blocks

Materials: building blocks of at least two different types (shapes or colors)

Many children love building with blocks, and this is a good way of tapping into their enthusiasm. You could have building blocks of different colors or you could have two different types of blocks, for example some cubes and some cylinders.

Try to stack them into towers in a pattern.

Activity 3: Tapping Into Interests – e.g. Vehicles

Materials: 2 different types of vehicles

Whenever you can do activities that link strongly to whatever the children are interested in, you always have a much higher chance of them being engaged and everything going well. Curiosity is the spark behind all education. Find out what a children’s interests are, and then design a pattern activity based around them.

A great example is vehicles. So many children are fascinated with cars, trucks, trains, and all the rest of it. You could do vehicle patterns in different ways, including:

• Have 2 different colors of vehicle and make a pattern

• Have 2 types of vehicles

• Make a car-park and have something that signifies what type of vehicle can park in each space. This could be on cardboard or a big piece of paper. The car park spaces could go red, blue, red, blue, for example. Park up cars so they go red, blue, red…etc

Activity 4: Pattern Games

Materials: groups of small objects to create a pattern

Gather three or four people (including your child) around a table and place a pile of objects in the center. The first person starts the pattern by taking one object from the middle, then each of the other players takes a turn choosing an object. When everyone has had one turn, ask your child to describe the pattern (ex: “dog, cat, frog, bird”). The first player then starts the pattern over again until no objects are left.

Create more challenging patterns by sequencing small groups of manipulatives (ex: two green jellybeans, then four purple jellybeans, then two green jellybeans, etc.) Guide your child in determining the correct order of the patterns.

Solve real-life problems involving time and money.