Place value, teen numbers and ten and some more are all concepts that can be a bit challenging for our students.  But when you use giant base ten manipulatives, it makes a challenging skill a bit easier.

Making the giant base ten blocks is super easy.  I used bright neon cardstock or but any cardstock or paper or construction paper will work.

First, I cut the squares that I would need to make the tens and ones.  I cut my squares 5 inches by 5 inches.

Next, I taped the squares together to make a tens unit.  I did not overlap the pieces but simply taped them edge to edge.  This prevents any flapping or drooping.

Finally I added some fun eyes and a smile to make place value peeps!   The eyes and mouth aren’t necessary but they’re funny and we laugh and when we laugh we learn more!

And then we introduced place value in class using the tens and ones.  For the lesson, students came up and picked up their samples and held them.  Then we counted by tens and ones to figure out the number.  We also determined how many tens and ones we had for each number.  After the lesson we did a quick assessment and 90% of the students got all of the assessment correct!

Check out the lesson in this video!

Also check out our other  Place Value creation!

For more math lessons, check out these posts: