Number size and place value

Place value is heavily linked to relative size.  Here are some good things to try with your kids:

• Take note of larger numbers as they occur (e.g. house numbers, page numbers in books).  Encourage your child to read the numbers and talk about other ways they could have been written.
• Talk about numbers whenever opportunities arise.  Ask questions such as “Which is bigger/smaller/the same/different?”
• Encourage students to work out how they could pay for something using different combinations of $100 notes, $10 notes and $1 coins.
• Involve your children in decision making about buying furniture.  Look at prices for furniture/electric goods in catalogues and talk about which is more expensive (e.g. when considering buying a new microwave or tv or fridge…).  Have students tell you what the price is.  Cut out the pictures with the prices, and order them from the cheapest to the most expensive, and then write their good and bad points underneath.
• Have your children measure amounts of liquids using millimetres (e.g. 250mL, 500mL) and compare which one is the biggest.  Try using smaller measuring instruments to put the total amount together and then compare to check that they are the same amounts (e.g. to make 250mL use a 100mL cup and a 50mL cup: 100mL + 100mL + 50mL = 250mL, then compare it to your original measurement of 250mL to see that they are the same).  This can be done in bath time with different sized measuring cups and jugs.
• Cut up a “hundreds chart” into a jig saw puzzle to do at home.
• Use number lines to examine relative size:  For example talk about house numbers up to 100 as they occur on long streets.