Rock and Roll Place Value Math Activity

A creative math activity is sure to get the kids having fun and learning.  This Rock and Roll Place Value Math activity uses rocks and dice to work on place value and many math concepts.  We just worked on place value with this activity, but you could adjust it to address addition and subtraction too.  Start looking for great rocks to use in learning activities, because this was a fun one!

Rock and Roll Place Value Math Activity

This math activity was so much fun.  When rocks are involved, the kids seem to get excited no matter what the topic at hand is.  Are your kids like that?  Mine just love all things dirt and nature, so pulling rocks into math makes boring place value practice a lot more fun.  Looking for more ways to involve nature in math? This is a fun one!

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For this activity, we used river pebbles that we’ve used in other activities.  These are easy to find in dollar stores or the craft aisle of larger stores, but you could go on a nature hunt for small pebbles and bring them home for some rock math.  Other than the rocks, we only used three dice and a tray with three compartments.  If you don’t have a tray like this one, simply write “hundreds”, “tens”, and “ones” on three pieces of paper and spread them out on a table.

Next, we got started on our math activity.  Spread the rocks out on a table.  Roll all three dice at once.  Have your child count the numbers on the dice and then decide which number to assign to each place value.  They can then count out the rocks and place them in the correct compartment of the tray.  Once all of the rocks are in the tray, ask them to name the value for hundreds, tens, and ones.

You can extend this activity in a few ways:

• Ask your child to name ten more, one hundred more, ten less, and one hundred less for the number they have rolled.
• Write down the three digit value.  Keep playing and do addition or subtraction problems with the three digit numbers.
•  Roll just one die at a time and have your child scoop up the correct number of rocks and the die in one swoop.

How would you play this rock and roll place value math activity using rocks and dice?