Base Ten Blocks

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Archive : 2007 : August : 27

Base Ten Blocks
By Abbra

I've used dice and base ten blocks. I called the game- Savings Account.

I put students in groups of 3-4.

Each group would have 2 die- preferably one white and one colored- and a bucket of base ten blocks-
units, longs, flats, and one decimeter cube.

One student would be the banker and the rest would be the savers.

Student 1 would shake both die. The colored dice would stand for the tens and the white die would stand for the ones. eg. 4 on the colored die and 2 on the white die would be 42. In the beginning, the student would say 4 longs and 2 units, but eventually they

would tell the banker 42. The banker would give them the base ten blocks for their shake. Then the other saver's would shake.

As the students continued to shake, they would need to trade in 10 units for a long, or ten longs for a flat to the banker.

The first student to 500 became the new banker.

Adaptations:
1. Special Needs- I photocopied a flat and a long. I had the student place the units on the long. When the long was filled up, they would trade their units for a long. The longs would be placed on top of the photo-copied flat. When the flat was filled, they would trade the ten longs in for a flat.
2. Students could play up to 1, 000. (Decimeter Cube)
3. Play Checkbook.- Work backwards. Give the students the equivalent of 500 and this time subtract! They learn to trade real fast!