Creative Place Value Practice with Mushroom and Ladybug Cards 🐞🍄

If you’re looking for a fun and engaging way to help your first graders grasp place value concepts, try this simple math game using my Mushroom and Ladybug Math Kit Cards! It’s a playful and interactive way for students to recognize tens and ones in two-digit numbers.

How to Play:

• Pair up students and give each pair some ladybug cards with three two-digit numbers (e.g., 13, 14, 15), a mushroom play mat, and some place value blocks.
• One student secretly chooses one of the numbers from the ladybug card and builds it using the place value blocks on the mushroom mat (e.g., 13 would be 1 ten block and 3 one blocks).
• The second student’s job is to look at the blocks and determine which of the three numbers has been made!
• If they guess correctly, they earn a small counter to track their wins.

Students reverse roles after each turn, and play continues until one player has collected three counters. Teachers can extend the game if needed.

This game is perfect for small groups or pairs and offers an easy, hands-on approach to understanding that the two digits of a number represent tens and ones.

Want More?

You can find the Mushroom and Ladybug Counting Cards in my Math Kit, along with other resources designed to support foundational math concepts.

And for more ideas on place value activities, check out my detailed blog post here!

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Happy teaching, and I hope your students love learning with these cute math cards!