Make a Flip Book for Place Value

Does your fourth grader read numbers up to the millions? Do you need a new game to entice them to practice? Fourth graders need lots of practice with reading numbers up to the millions, which will help them to be confident and successful math problem solvers. This is especially important as they move into the fifth grade. To practice place value, here's a fun hands-on activity to get your child flipping through place value with ease!

• large shoe box (or cut cardboard: 6x12 inches)
• safety scissors
• construction paper (2 pieces of each color: red, orange, yellow, white, blue, green, purple)
• black marker lined paper
• ball yarn pencil hole puncher

What You Do:

Step 1:
Have your child review writing numbers by using a piece of lined paper and pencil to write the following numbers as you read them aloud:

• 450
• 4,508
• 68,215
• 798,012
• 1,982,545
• 3,786,901
• 8,098,654
• 6,312,855

After he is finished, check his answers to make sure they're written correctly. Remind him that the number "0" is called a "place holder." For example, without the number "0" at the end of problem #1, their answer would only be forty-five, not four hundred fifty. You may also check to see if he wrote his numbers using a comma after each group of 3 numbers, as in the number "4,508." This will help him to think about the number's place value, or how much it really represents, as he is writing.

Step 2:
Tell your child he will be using what he knows about place value to practice reading numbers in the millions by making a game. Have him get one piece of red construction paper and fold it into 8 sections: fold it in half, then fold in half again, and fold the remainder in half. Then ask him to repeat this process for the rest of the construction paper. HE should then use a black marker to write seven sets of the numbers 0-9. When he is finished, he should have a total of 70 number cards.