Teaching Number Sense Using the 100 Chart

Interactive Strategies Designed to Increase Math Understanding

Aug 27, 2009

Try these elementary math teaching activities to help build number concepts and improve math understanding using a hundreds pocket chart on a daily basis.

Tracking the number of days in school on a 1-100 pocket chart is a time honored tradition in most primary classrooms. But don’t stop there. An interactive 100 chart with numeral cards that students can manipulate provides a multitude of opportunities to build a sense of number and number relationship for young children.

Counting Days With the Hundreds Chart

Start the year by putting all of the number cards onto the chart, blank sides up. Turn over the first card; ask students to name it. Ask if anyone has an idea of how far the numbers will go or what the last number will be. Ask students to explain their thinking. After the students have made some predictions, check their thinking by turning over the cards one by one and counting to the end. Ask if the students see any patterns on the chart.

After this first exercise, the numbers can be turned back to blank sides up. As the daily count builds toward 100, pick out cards at random and challenge students to tell what number they think they’ll see when you turn that card over. Ask how they knew.

Using the Hundreds Pocket Chart to Extend Number Concepts Throughout the Year

When ten or more numbers have been turned over, ask students to close their eyes. Remove one, two, or three random number cards from the chart. Ask children to look and tell which numbers are missing.

Ask students how they figured out the missing number without seeing it. This discussion of how to know which number belongs in a given space is important to the building of number patterns and relationships.

Extending the Hundreds Number Chart Beyond Day 100

After the 100th day of school and all the numbers on the chart have been turned over, conduct short exercises to develop a deeper sense of the relationships and patterns among numbers. Use the hundreds chart to:

Pull out and discuss visually related numbers such as 36 and 63. Ask the students to talk about how they are alike and different. Discuss how easy it is to confuse certain numbers – they may look alike but they have very different in meanings. Ask: would you rather have this many stickers (show 36) or this many (show 63)?

Don’t stop with 100! When the 101st day of school arrives, consider adding an additional chart to keep the count going. Or use a tab or marker with the numeral 100 written on it and position it behind the number one card to indicate 100 + 1; move the tab each day to indicate 102, 103, etc.

Number work is most effective when it becomes routine. Using a hundreds chart on a daily basis, allowing individuals and groups of children to manipulate the numbers and engage in patterning, counting forward and backward from any number, and problem solving will yield the best results. Have fun with the chart! When children are having fun, they learn more. And consider allowing students to access the chart with a partner during their free time to practice and challenge each other using the games and routines they have learned.

The copyright of the article Teaching Number Sense Using the 100 Chart in Primary School Lesson Plans is owned by Margaret M. Williams. Permission to republish Teaching Number Sense Using the 100 Chart in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.