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Number & Operations for Teachers Copyright David & Cynthia Thomas, 2009 |
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Base Ten Blocks (Also called Diennes Blocks) Base Ten Blocks (See Figure 1.1) normally come in four sizes. The basic unit, or one, is typically a plastic cube 1 cm on a side. A strip is a 1x10 row of ones. A flat is a 10x10 square of ones. And a block is a 10x10x10 cube of ones. An essential objective when introducing the use of these materials is that the learner should become comfortable holding equivalent representations in his/her mind simultaneously, ready to adopt the use of whichever representation is most useful in a given problem.
Figure 1.1: Base Ten Blocks Using base ten blocks, students unfamiliar with exponential notation may model the structure of the base ten numeration system. For instance, a concept model for the whole number 1,234 is seen in Figure 1.2.
Figure 1.2: Base Ten Blocks Example 1.5 - Sketch a concept model for the number 2,137 - Sketch a concept model for the number 3,007 Solution 1.5
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