Place Value

One of the hardest concepts for students is, unfortunately, the one that begins our study of third grade math. And that’s place value.

Now, for adults, place value has become second nature. But for children, they do not at all get the distinction between 4 as a digit and 4 as a number. They look the same, so aren’t they the same?

We will be spending all year working to really get the idea. One way we will be doing this will be by exploring a couple different number systems. One is the Roman numeral system.  There’s nothing like having to figure out what MMDCCXXI is to appreciate the genius of our Hindu-Arabic numerals! The other is base 8, what we call Simpsons math since the characters on the Simpsons only have 4 fingers on a hand. Here children will learn to count 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 10, 11, and so on. I find that alternative basic really make us understand place value.

So, we begin our math each day by counting which day of school it is in each of the three systems.

Homework:  (1) Study spelling words for tomorrow’s quiz. (2) Math, pp 4-5, #1-30.