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Over the last 15 years, I’ve taught 1st and 2nd grade and elementary math intervention, and one of the reasons I became such a big believer in a daily Number of the Day routine was because I kept seeing the same problem… students struggling with math skills that all tied back to number sense and place value.
Oftentimes, students struggled to regroup when subtracting, use addition strategies, and solve word problems. I’d start digging into why they were struggling, and it almost always came back to a lack of those foundational skills and understanding how numbers work and relate to one another.
A student might know that the 6 in 63 is in the tens place, but not really understand that it represents 60. They might be able to count by tens starting at 10, but ask them to start at 34 and suddenly they’re lost. Or they could solve 10 more than 50 but struggle with 10 more than 247.
Those foundational number sense skills and place value skills show up EVERYWHERE in elementary math, and while we usually spend a big chunk of time teaching place value at the beginning of the year in 2nd grade, our students need more than one unit of practice for those skills to really stick.
That’s where a simple Number of the Day routine can make a huge difference. Read on to learn how to use this routine for daily place value practice that really makes a difference!
Place value isn’t just one more standard or unit to check off your pacing guide in 2nd grade.
Students use their understanding of numbers when they’re learning to add and subtract, regroup, compare numbers, solve word problems, use mental math strategies, work with measurement, and so much more.
Think about a student trying to solve 47 + 30.
If that student understands that 47 is made up of 4 tens and 7 ones and that adding 30 means adding 3 more tens, they’re already set up to think flexibly about the problem.
But if they’re still shaky on what those digits actually represent, now we’re asking them to learn an addition strategy on top of a foundation that’s not quite solid yet.
That’s something I saw ALL the time when I taught math intervention.
The skill that got a student flagged wasn’t always where we needed to spend most of our time. 9 times out of 10, we needed to go back and strengthen those foundational number sense skills first… and that takes practice! It takes consistent opportunities to work with numbers and spiral review these important skills throughout the year.
As teachers, we have so much material to get through with our students, and a lot of times, our district-provided curriculum is flat out overwhelming. There’s so many extra activities and add-ons that we could use, but there’s just not enough time in the day.
We feel pressured to move through units and stay on track with the pacing guide. So we open up our place value unit, grab the base ten blocks, make the anchor chart, and do the activities provided to practice expanded form, word form, comparing numbers, and 10 more, 10 less. After a week or two, we assess our students, slap a sticker on their assessments, and wrap up the unit. Then we move onto the next unit.
But here’s where things go off the rails…
A few weeks later, we ask our students, “What’s 10 less than 426?”
We’re met with 20 little faces staring at us like we’ve just asked them to calculate how long it’ll take to get a rocket to Mars.
They DID learn it… but they just haven’t had enough opportunities to keep using it.
That’s why I became such a big believer in place value practice that spirals throughout the entire school year.
Students don’t necessarily need an entire lesson dedicated to previously taught skills. They need short, consistent opportunities to apply those skills again and again.
That’s one of the reasons I love using Number of the Day.
You’ve probably heard of Number of the Day before. Maybe you’ve even implemented some version of it in your classroom.
The routine is pretty simple.
Give students one number and ask them to think about that number in several different ways.
That’s it! But there’s a LOT of math packed into that simple routine.
Let’s say the Number of the Day is 356.
Students might:
Instead of practicing each place value skill in isolation, students start seeing how all of these ideas connect to the same number.
And because Number of the Day is a predictable routine, you aren’t spending the first five minutes explaining a brand-new activity every single day.
Students know what to do.
You display the number. They get started. You review it together.
No cutting out 84 different task cards at 9:47 p.m. required.
That’s my kind of math routine!
There are SO many number sense skills and place value skills you can incorporate into Number of the Day.
In 2nd grade, I like to include practice with skills such as:
Now, it’s important to remember that your students don’t need to practice every single one of those skills every single day.
In fact, I don’t want my students completing the exact same Number of the Day worksheet in May that they were completing in September.
Their math skills have grown. The numbers they’re expected to work with have grown. Their Number of the Day should grow too!
This was a big priority when I created my 2nd Grade Digital Number of the Day resource.
I wanted something teachers could use all year long for consistent place value and number sense practice, but I didn’t want students doing the same thing for 180 days with nothing but a different number at the top of the page.
Because by Day 137, they’re going to be able to complete that thing in their sleep.
Instead, I created 9 progressive sets with 20 days of practice in each set.
The numbers gradually increase throughout the sets:
120 → 300 → 500 → 700 → 900 → 1,000 → 1,050 → 1,100 → 1,200
But the numbers aren’t the only thing that changes. The skills change too.
Students begin with review and gradually work with more advanced numbers and different combinations of number sense skills and place value skills.
Previously learned skills continue to spiral back into the routine, while new skills are introduced as students are ready for them.
This progression gives students continued exposure to important concepts without completing the exact same practice all year long. I love that this allows you to keep the routine consistent while the math gets more challenging.
Implementing a Number of the Day routine into your math block shouldn’t be stressful or take a huge chunk of time. I think the simpler you can keep the routine, the better!
Here’s how I recommend setting up your routine:
Open the Google Slides or PowerPoint file and display the day’s Number of the Day on your classroom board.
Each of the 180 days is already made for you, so you’re not coming up with a new number and set of questions every morning.
Students use the recording sheet that matches the current set to solve the problems.
If you want to cut down on copies, print the recording sheet once, slide it into a dry erase sleeve, and reuse it for all 20 days in that set. (That’s what I do!).
Students solve, erase, and use it again the next day.
If you prefer good old-fashioned pencil and paper, those pages are included too.
You can print individual Number of the Day pages as you need them or combine them to make a student Number of the Day booklet.
After students finish, take a few minutes to review their thinking together.
You can write directly on the displayed slide using your interactive board tools while students check their work.
But don’t stop at checking answers.
Ask higher order thinking questions like:
Those quick conversations give students another opportunity to explain their mathematical thinking and make connections between skills.
The nice thing about this routine is that you don’t need to create a brand-new spot in your schedule for it.
You can use Number of the Day for:
I especially love it as a math warm-up because students know exactly what to expect.
There aren’t new directions to teach every morning, you aren’t passing out 12 different materials, and no one needs scissors before you’ve finished your coffee. That sounds like a win to me!
Looking for more ways to sneak in place value practice? Check out this blog post for a roundup of ideas!
You can also Ggab my Place Value Shake It Up activity for an easy, hands-on way to help your students practice important place value skills.
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One of my biggest takeaways from teaching math intervention was just how much those foundational skills matter. Like, they really matter!
It’s easy to move forward because the pacing guide says it’s time for the next unit.
But our students still need opportunities to work with numbers.
They need to decompose them, represent them, compare them, manipulate them, talk about them, and see the relationships between them.
You don’t have to make that practice complicated.
A short Number of the Day routine gives students consistent exposure to important number sense skills and place value skills while still leaving plenty of time for the rest of your math instruction.
And when the practice spirals and grows with your students, you’re not just keeping them busy for the first ten minutes of math.
You’re continuing to strengthen the foundation they’re going to use for everything that comes next.
If you want to add consistent place value practice to your day without creating 180 different warm-ups yourself, I’ve already done that part for you!
My 2nd Grade Number of the Day Digital Math Warm-Up & Worksheets includes 180 days of progressive number sense and place value practice divided into 9 sets.
You’ll get:
The numbers gradually increase from numbers within 120 all the way to 1,200, while the skills change and spiral throughout the sets.
180 days. 9 progressive sets. One Number of the Day routine you can use all year long.
