Place Value Leaves: Read and Write

As a child I remember learning my hundreds, tens and units and then moving onto decimal places, thousands, millions etc… well it would seem to that we are there with J. For this week’s 2nd grade post and the theme leaves we’re working on place value, and reading, writing the numbers that are formed. Combining learning place value with the reading and writing of numbers brings additional ways in which a child will recall the place value of numbers and the importance of each place in a number.

As we are a creative family I decided it was time to combine some maths with some art so we created our own leaves and used them on a branch to work on the place value and the reading and writing of the 3 digit numbers.

Learning Objectives

Our Learning objectives are coming direct from the UK government objectives for Key Stage 1 children (year 1 and 2 – 1st and 2nd grade)

• Can read and write all numbers to at least 100 in numerals and words
• Recognise and can define the place value of each digit

Materials for working on place value

Leaf Shapes Sponges [affiliate link] (or real leaves) to print with
Coloured Paint
Sharpie
Scissors
Brown Cardstock
White Paper

Pencil

Creating the leaf prints

I don’t know about your kids but my kids LOVE printing and getting the paints out so we may have gone a little overboard with creating our prints – however I know that at some point this year or extra leaves will be used.

We printed using the Leaf Shapes Sponges[affiliate link] making sure that there was ample space between the prints of the leaves.

Then left them to dry, after they are dry cut them out and onto them label them with the numerals 0 – 9. I did 30 leaves in total and labeled them in sets as I know at some point we will be working on higher numbers.

Cut out a piece of brown card to look like a branch making sure that it has 3 places on it for leaves to attach to represent hundreds, tens and unit leaves.

Place Value Activity

Set out a number on the leaves – I started with 102 and then explain what each leaf told us – the first leaf the hundred number, the second leaf the number of tens and the last leaf the unit number.

Then ask your child to read the number out loud to you – we first have ” 1, 0, 2″ so to prompt him I said remember the first leaf is one hundred – this prompted the recognition that we were looking at a number starting with 100 and “102” came out straight away.

The next step was to write the number below as a number and then in words. This prompted a discussion about it was one hundred than two – not one hundred and two – sometimes having accents really hinders children’s recognition of words and spelling this was one of those situations and provided a great time and opportunity to discuss this misconception that school hadn’t picked up on with him as when he’s saying it – it sounds right.

With the next numbers he chose which numbers to go on the branch – the first number he choose was a 0 in the hundred position. I could hear the clocks ticking as he worked out what that meant. “So is this the 1024 or is it just 24!” with some discussion again (I love the activities that give us lots of prompts for discussion and talking about the learning) I explained it was like saying we had 0 hundred and that made sense.

He then read the numbers, wrote the numbers and wrote the numbers in words.

Adapting

You know your child – if they are at the stage of working at place value of 2 digit numbers then reduce the number of anchor points on the branch and get them to work out numbers up to 99. For older and more able children introduce more anchor points – or a separate branch and add in decimal places on the separate branch.

Using the branch you can work on subtracting and adding at place value level – subtracting units, tens, or even hundred. E.G Start with the number 155 – now you subtract or add 1, 2, 3 or 4 and they adjust the unit number. Now repeat changing it for adding or subtracting 10, 20, 30 or 40 and then adjusting the number of 10’s.

Ideas for 2nd Grade Learning Activities based on the theme of Leaves

Check out these other great ideas for leaf based learning from the 2nd grade blogging team.

Tree Leaf Collection with {FREE} Leaf ID Cards from Preschool Powol Packets

Leaves Math: Even and Odd for Second Grade from Look! We’re Learning

Place Value Leaves: Read and Write from Rainy Day Mum

Fall Themed Math Bump Games from School Time Snippets

Subtracting with Ten-Frames: Leaf Theme from Life Over C’s

Sensory (or acrostic) poems from Planet Smarty Pants

Autumn Leaves Mini-Reports from Still Playing School

Owl Leaf Art from Crafty Kids at Home

Colorful Leaves Fall Craft for “MY LEAF BOOK” from Sallie Borrink Learning

Fall Leaf Fine Motor Craft from Sugar Aunts