Students who struggle with number sense, such as place value, struggle with subsequent math content. Connecting place value to prior knowledge or an area of interest can be an entry point to making place value accessible. This post shows how a student interest (horses) can be leveraged to present place value in a more accessible fashion.
The student likes horseback riding. This can be useful to make the concept relative (10 horses live in a barn) and engaging. Here is a YouTube video and a FB Reel showing how this works. The key is 10 horses can “enter” the barn and disappear.
Additional Forms
The Jamboard has a slide with a Legos version. This allows a nice transition from using actual Legos as the 1×1 blocks can connected to make a 10.
Here is a link to the Jamboard. You have to make a copy to use.
