Students in Ms. Fields's class use pattern blocks to make a design. Each pattern block is assigned a different value. Yellow Hexagons = 10,000 ~ Red Trapezoids = 1,000 ~ Blue Rhombuses = 100 ~ Squares = 10 ~ Triangles = 1. When combined:

90,000 + 600 + 50 + 2 = 90,602

The more flexibility with which students can think about and construct numbers, the stronger their number sense. This activity can be done with decimal place value as well simply by assigning the pattern blocks decimal values.

Indicator: 6.4.1.1 read and write numbers less than one million and more than one hundred
using standard and expanded notation.