How can we use bundles of ten to understand place value?

Hub 6 learners are making meaning of place value. What does the number 20 really mean? We are using paddle pop sticks and making bundles of 10 to visualize larger numbers as groups of ten.

Today we imagined our paddle pop sticks were certain kinds of food for different animals. We sorted and grouped animals into small and large animals, and learned what kind of food they might like to eat.

We then considered how we could effectively bundle paddle pops into tens to feed these animals. The chicken was easy to feed with only 20 seeds (2 bundles of ten). The lion was not so easy, and needed 80 bits of meat (8 bundles of ten). We had to collaborate to solve that one!