Pool Noodle Base Ten

Hello friends,

I'm super bummed about not getting to go to Vegas this year, so I'm getting through the week by making some things for the classroom.  First up, pool noodle base ten.  This was super easy, and I made both of these sets in less than 20 minutes!  My own 6 year old has enjoyed exploring with them this afternoon.

First, I went to Dollar Tree and bought some pool noodles.  I have to admit, I have 2 Dollar Trees within 5 minutes of my house, and the first one only had 2 noodles left in the store.  I was afraid I had already missed out on them this season and would have to pay twice the price somewhere else, but the second store I went to still had a great selection.  

Next, I measured each noodle and marked at 40 inches.

And I cut off the last 7 inches.  I just used a kitchen knife to do this.

Next, I cut the 40 inch noodle in half so I had two 20 inch pieces.

My next step was to take the seven inch piece and measure and mark 2 inch sections, having an inch left.

When finished, I had cut 5 orange noodles into 10 tens and 15 ones.

I loved that I ended up with 15 ones.  Students can manipulate the ones to regroup.

I did the same with 5 blue noodles.

I love that when you stack up ten of the ones that they are the same size as the tens.

We had fun counting tens and ones this afternoon.

There are so many possibilities with our large tens and ones.  I plan to use them in whole group math so students can manipulate them.  I will also use them in small groups and centers.  

I had 10 one inch pieces left over.  I had planned on using them for some alphabet games, but someone else had different plans.

And that's it!  Easy peasy!

If you need some base ten activities, check out my Base Ten Crack the Code packet in my TPT store.