Center Focus

Base10 Blocks

  1. Have your students draw a 64cm x 37cm rectangle on paper. They need to be sure that the corners are square.
  2. Then your students will use base-10 blocks to fill in the rectangle.
  3. They will begin with the flats (10x10) in the left hand bottom corner. They will put as many of these blocks as possible into the rectangle.
  4. They will then work with the 10s to fill up the rest of the space until they cannot fit any more.
  5. Then they will fill the remainder of the space with the unit blocks.
  6. Your students will then need to add up the total. In order to do this, they should add up each section separately. Using a simple place-value chart helps them keep track of the blocks and sums. This is how the chart should look when they are done.