Teachers can use place value mats to help students understand the concept of place values. One side of the mat is one color while the other is a second color, such as green and blue, white and black, pink and white or any other color combination. It is possible to make the mats using construction paper. One side is "ones" and the other side is "tens." When working on activities, students put numbers in tens in the tens side and the numbers for the single numbers in the ones side.
Building blocks are useful in helping students understand the idea of ones and tens because they can fit together and break apart. The teacher can tell the students a number, such as 22, and then have the students put all of the blocks together. The teacher then tells the students to break it down into tens and ones. The tens are put together in two sets of ten while the ones are separated into two single blocks. This helps the teacher determine if the students are understanding the concepts.
Teachers can obtain items like straws, sticks, rocks or similar small items and pile them up or put them in a loose pile. The students are asked to count the items to find out how many there are. Upon finding out the number, the teacher has them bundle the items in tens and ones or pile them, as appropriate for the item. For example, if the students have 54 straws, the bundles should have five sets of ten straws rubber-banded together and four single straws.
Worksheets are a valuable practice strategy that teachers can employ to help students break down numerals into place values. Worksheets can have a place value number chart, where the students put the appropriate numbers in the appropriate columns, or it can require students to break down the numbers into the appropriate place values using a longer method. For example, a place value worksheet might ask the students to write out the numbers in a long form, such as writing out 200 + 30 + 4 instead of 234 to show that they understand the idea of the 2 in the hundred's place, the 3 in the ten's place and the 4 in the one's place.