The Place Value Choir

This is a quick idea for an oral and mental starter that I've been using with classes and teachers at courses for a good few years. The example below would suit fourth class (4 digit numbers) but you can easily adapt it to suit 3rd or 2nd class by removing groups, and using only 2 or 3 digits respectively. And even though it's for place value, a topic usually covered at the start of the year, it would be a suitable activity right through the year to reinforce and revise.

In the past I've used a numeral flip, (exactly like in the one in top left), however I've just recently come across a perfect, online, digital resource (top right), which makes this activity accessible to all, not just

those with the physical numeral flip. It's also a very timely discovery for me, as my numeral flip has recently fallen apart after many years of faithful service!

The activity:

Divide the children into four groups, units, tens, hundreds and thousands. Using the digital flip counter the teacher makes a series of numbers by adding/changing the units or tens or hundreds or thousands. When the teacher changes the units, the units group reads out the whole number; when the teacher changes the tens, the tens group reads out the whole number, and so on for changes to the hundreds and thousands. I usually start with units, get them to pause after 3 or 4 callouts, move to tens, then hundreds, then thousands, then back again to units and so on.