‘Matching Mittens’ Place Value Activity for Numbers 1 to 20
Find the pairs of mittens! A fun place value matching activity for numbers 1 to 20
Today there’s a chill in the air and it may be that time of year where we pull out the basket of mittens from the closet.
And to go with the normal kind of mittens (the woolly kind!), we also have some other mittens to share too, in the form of a place value mitten matching activity.
This place value activity focuses on the numbers 1 to 20 and it’s completely free for subscribers.
For more information and to access your own copy of this printable resource, read on.
Tell me about this ‘Matching Mittens’ math activity!
This mitten-matching place value activity is intended for children in kindergarten and grade 1. It focuses on numbers 1 to 20 and shows the numbers in the form of base ten blocks.
This is a particularly useful resource for children who are just starting out with the topic of place value by exploring the teen numbers (11 to 19). Using base ten block pictures, children can see how the numbers can be organised into one ‘ten’ and a number of ‘ones’.
The resource comes as a PDF download. You can then print the mitten cards and cut them out for use either at home or in the classroom.
There are 40 cards included – 20 cards showing a numeral and 20 cards showing a base ten block picture.
How to use this Matching Mittens Math Resource
There are lots of ways you can use these matching mitten place value cards. Here are a few ideas:
1. Play a Game of Matching Pairs
Use the mitten cards to play matching pairs. Cut out all the mitten cards and spread them out, face down, on the table or floor. Each player takes turns to flip over two cards. If you turn over a matching pair (a number card and its corresponding base ten block picture card), you keep the pair and take another turn. If you turn over two cards that don’t make a pair, it becomes the other person’s turn. When all the cards have gone, the player with the most pairs is declared the winner. Whilst playing, children will have lots of practice at working out which number is shown by the base ten blocks and then identifying the corresponding numeral.
2. Match Them!
Spread the mitten cards face up on the table or floor. Challenge your child/students to match each number card to its corresponding base ten block picture to make a pair. This could also be done as a cut-and-paste activity where children match the mittens and then glue each pair onto a piece of paper. If starting with all the cards is too much, start with half at a time (e.g. 1 to 10 first, then 11 to 20 another time).
3. Base Ten Block Activity
Spread out the number cards only. Children should pick a number card and then try to build the number shown out of base ten blocks.
4. Order the Mittens
Using the base ten block picture cards, challenge your child/students to lay the cards out in order from smallest to biggest or from biggest to smallest. Once in order, match the number cards to each picture card.
4. Compare Numbers
You can practise comparing two numbers using the great than, less than and equals symbols.
Start by drawing <, > and = on three squares of paper or cardstock. Then, choose two mitten cards and challenge you child or students to add the card that will correctly complete the number sentence. You can use just the numeral cards, just the base ten block cards, or a combination of the two.
(In the pictures below, we have used our crocodile symbols, which come as part of our Crocodile Numbers resource.)
Well, I hope that’s given you lots of ideas for how to use these mitten place value cards.
Get your own copy of this mitten matching activity here!
In need of more place value math resources? We have lots in our TPT online store:
For two digit numbers:
For three digit numbers:
For four digit numbers:
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