Place Value Ladders

Teachers can use Ladder Cards with their children as individual mathematical activities, or as a game format. In its simplest form children choose digit cards and place them on the ladder so that the numbers ascend in value for each rung.

mathsticks makes this versatile idea even more appealing by including our signature characters and digit cards designed to match the ladder-spaces.

As a beginning activity, the children can look at all of the digit cards and choose the ones they need to fill the ladder. However, the same resource can be used in a game format. Two children have a board each; and place a shuffled set of digit cards face down on the table between them. They take it in turns to choose a digit card and then to judge where to place it on their board. This encourages them to think mathematically, and to develop meaningful strategies.

This is the key to the learning in this activity, the children are engaged in problem solving:

"I've turned over a 2...
...what's the chance that I'll get a smaller number
in the next few turns?

Should I place the 2 on the bottom rung and hope
I don't get a 1?"

The teacher notes describe a number of ways in which this basic premise has been adapted to suit different situations and different abilities.

NEW - Longer Ladders now available!

The Ladder Boards, digit cards and teacher notes (pdf) are free to download from the link below*, but please respect the mathsticks creative commons licence.

Alternative sets of digit cards for use with the Ladder Boards can be downloaded from the Digit Cards page.
 

* Login/register first to access the downloadable files.

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