Exploring the power of Place Value

Let's start our journey in a rather unorthodox way...

Consider six magic cards all with some numbers between 1 and 60 on them. (a printable download is available in resources)

Ask a student to choose a number between 1 and 60.

Then have the student separate all the cards that have that number.

Ask for all the cards that have the student's number.

Then, using just the cards with the number, you, the Math Magician, reveal the number the student selected.

The real bonus of this activity (after the secret is revealed to you and then by you to students in your class) is that students can take cards home and impress their family members! But first ... a sheep story.

A Sheep Story:

This is place value for base 2.

This is how the magic cards work. Look at the number in the top left corner of each card. Add those numbers together from the cards selected and you will be able to guess the chosen number correctly.

In resources you will see a Magic Cards cheat sheet.

This is for students that still struggle to add multiple numbers in their head. Show them that they need only to start with the largest number on the selected cards and then count the rest of the squares on the cheat sheet corresponding to the selected cards.

For example: if cards with the following numbers in the upper left corner were selected - 32, 16, 4, and 1. You don't need to count the 32, you just start there and begin counting: 32, 33, 34, 35, ... 47, 48, (that 's the 16, now jumping to 4) 49, 50, 51, 52, and finally add 1.

53 was the chosen number in this case.