Place Value Tool for Years 3 to 6: MAB Builder Thousands to Ones
MAB Builder: Thousands, Hundreds, Tens and Ones is a place value tool for Years 3 to 6 by Teach This, an interactive PowerPoint tool aligned to the Australian Curriculum. Students represent, partition and regroup four-digit numbers with virtual MAB blocks. Each tap on the Thousands, Hundreds, Tens or Ones button adds one block, and the number and each column value update straight away. There are three modes: Build a number, Guess my number and Make my number. Make my number gives 10 targets, such as 2045, 7008 and 2999, to practise zero as a placeholder. It opens in Microsoft PowerPoint on any interactive whiteboard, panel or projector, with no macros, no student logins and no student data collected.
Use it in a Year 3 or Year 4 place value lesson to show why 7008 needs two zeros, or in Years 5 and 6 as a quick review before rounding and decimals. It saves handing out and collecting thousand cubes.
Learning goals
- We are learning to recognise, model, represent and order numbers to at least 10 000.
- We are learning to recognise, model, represent and order numbers to at least tens of thousands.
Curriculum alignment
Australian Curriculum covers QLD / SA / WA / NT / TAS / ACT.
Differentiation
Modifications
Start with three-digit numbers by leaving the thousands column empty, and have students say the value of each column aloud as they build. Give students a paper place value chart so they can record each build.
Extensions
Ask students to write each Make my number target in expanded form, then say the number that is 100 more and 1000 less before checking with the blocks.