Seeing 247 as flats, rods and cubes before writing it down

A first grader who can count to 100 doesn't necessarily know that 43 is four tens and three ones. Ours could recite it and couldn't show it. The plastic blocks did the job at school; at home we had a printer, so the blocks went on paper.

What the sheet looks like

Each problem on the base ten blocks and abacus worksheet draws a number as hundreds flats, tens rods and ones cubes, or as beads on a hundreds-tens-ones abacus. The Model setting is Base-ten blocks, Abacus or Mixed. Number size is 2-digit for first grade or 3-digit for second. The Answer setting is write the number, or hundreds-tens-ones boxes to fill in first. Pages hold 2 or 4 problems, and the drawings are large enough to touch and count, with an optional answer key.

Why it works

• A rod is ten cubes stuck together and a flat is ten rods. Ten stops being a word and becomes a shape, and the child can see that 3 rods and 12 cubes is not what 42 looks like.
• The abacus is one step more abstract. A bead on the tens rod looks exactly like a bead on the ones rod; only its position gives it a value. That is place value, exactly.
• Filling the H, T and O boxes before writing the number stops the "two hundred forty-seven" to 20047 error that comes from writing what you hear.

Who it suits

Six-year-olds take Base-ten blocks, 2-digit, write the number, 2 problems per page. Eight-year-olds can do the Abacus on 3-digit with the boxes. The sheet stops at three digits, which is where grade 2 stops too. When the models are no longer needed, the place value worksheet does the same work with digits alone.

Two problems a page is not too few for a six-year-old. Big drawings that can be touched are the point.