Introducing Place Value - Tens and Ones

After a week of practice with the Base 10 blocks, Sophie had skip counting by 10's down.  It's now time to move on to place value, or, the understanding of what's in between 10, 20, 30, 40 and 50.

Lesson:  Introducing Tens and Ones Place Value

Objective:  Student will recognize the value of digits in two-digit numbers.

Materials:  Paper.  Glue / tape (to connect papers if you need a longer chart).  Crayons/markers/pen.  Base 10 blocks.

Process:  

1. Draw a T-chart on a piece of paper.  Label one side 'T' and one side, 'O'.  Explain to child that the 'T' stands for 'Tens', and the 'O' stands for 'Ones'.
2. Instruct child to count one unit, and place it on the 'O' side of the chart.  Ask child, "How many ones do we have?"  When child answers, "One", write a '1' next to it (I wrote in a different color, so it would stand out).
3. Instruct child to count two units, and place them on the 'O' side of the chart beneath the 1.  Ask child, "How many ones do we have?"  When child answers, "Two", write a '2' next to them.  
4. Instruct child to count three units, and place them on the 'O' side of the chart beneath the 2.  Ask child, "How many ones do we have?"  When child answers, "Three", write a '3' next to them.  

5.  When you get to 10, instruct child to count 10 units.  When she does, ask, "How else can you show, '10'?"  Get a 10-stick, and line it up next to the 10 one units.  Agree that they show the same amount.  

6.  Discard the 10 one units, and say, "This is one 10.  It doesn't go in the Ones place.  It goes in the Tens place."  Move the 10-stick to the Tens column.  

7.  Ask child, "Now how many ones do we have?"  Write a '0' in the Ones column.  Ask, "How many tens do we have?"  Write a '1' in the Tens column. 

By this time, Sophie was tired out.  She saw that we had just written, '10', but it was a new concept, and shut down on me.  I stopped the lesson here, and will continue repeat the process several times this week until it's easy for her to change from one units to 10-sticks.