Know Your Place

     When a difficult concept is put to a song or another mnemonic device, it seems to stick with the students so much longer.  I am reminded of my seventh grade science class.  Our teacher was teaching us about place values to the right of the decimal.  He then told us about a mnemonic device that I still remember to this day.  Tom Hardy Took Ted's Happy Meal.  The beginning letter of each word stands for a place value.  I created the following cartoon using ToonDoo in order to illustrate the concept:

Then I started thinking that I did not have a fun trick to teach my future students about place values to the left of the decimal.  I never have to think about it, it is just an automatic thing for me.  I started searching the Internet and came across a song from Mr. R. about place values from ones to hundreds.  Since I found this video, I have not been able to get this song out of my head, which I suppose is the purpose.  It is a catchy song like this that students will be singing every time they need to remember the place values.



It just makes me realize how many resources there are on the Internet and all around us.  There isn't any reason that students should be bored with their learning as long as teachers are willing to think outside of the box and find these fun little activities and presentations that will catch the attention of their students as well as give them tools in order to help them remember all of the information that is presented to them each year in school.  I still see my seventh grade science teacher from time to time and he laughs when I tell him about his silly little sentence that I am still using for my classes this many years later.

For some place value lesson plans, please visit:

                        Understanding Decimal Place Value

                        Ten More and Ten Less

                        Nine Digit Place Value Chart

                        Exploring Additional Patterns