Place Value with Marshmallows

If you have been looking at our learning activities for any time, you already know that we love to include treats and food as a part of our schooling. It draws them in and makes whatever activity we are doing a little more like a celebration, and that is the way learning should feel, I think. Today I reviewed place value with Quentin using marshmallows. We had three sizes of them..the mini's, the regular-sized and those jumbo-sized ones that are all the rage right now.  Perfect for showing 1's, 10's and 100's places.

This idea comes from Relentlessly Fun, Deceptively Educational, and if you have not gone to this blog before, you must go there and check it out. I find myself bookmarking every post she does!

We started out with him just building various numbers, and then after awhile we began doing some three digit addition problem without regrouping.

 Then we got the idea of putting the mini's on a wooden skewer -sticky business, but he seemed to enjoy it anyway. Then we started with addition problems with some regrouping. Once the skewer held 10 mini's, he traded it in for a regular-sized marshmallow.

It was fun, it held his attention and he was happy to learn.

139 shown in marshmallows

We just used a blank piece of paper for our problems, but if you are the worksheet type, Relentlessly Fun, Deceptively Educational has a great worksheet to go with this lesson which has a nice, colorful key at the top.