Understanding Place Value with Base Ten Blocks in the Upper Elementary Grades
Base ten blocks first appeared in elementary school classrooms over 50 years ago, when the New Math Movement in the 1960s pushed for a greater conceptual focus in elementary math instruction (Kim & Albert 2014). Teachers have been using them ever since to teach number sense, counting, place value, and whole number and decimal operations. Today, the Common Core Learning Standards delicate one of five learning domains to “Numbers and Operations in Base Ten” in Kindergarten through Grade 5, so base ten blocks are a more important part of elementary math instruction than ever.
