Fourth Grade Math: Building 1000

Dear Families,

Last week, we began our place value unit by thinking about measurement.  I asked students to show me how long they thought 1 cm might be.  I then showed them a cube with a length of 1 cm and asked them to show me with their hands what 10 cm might look like.  Next, with their partners, their task was to use a piece of yarn and cut what they estimated 100 cm might look like.  Afterwards, they build 100 cm strips using grid paper and were able to compare their estimates to their strips.  It was interesting to see how close (and how far) some of them came!

We then planned together how we might build a strip that was 1000 cm long.  The consensus was that we could use ten of the 100cm strips to build it.  Before building, students used post-its to estimate how far around the room the strip would stretch.  They were so excited Tuesday morning to see where the actual strip ended.

This investigation enabled students to think about ten times relationships in a concrete way.  We will continue to be looking at these relationships more abstractly and seeing how the numbers are represented using a place value chart.  See below for pictures of the students at work!