Teaching activities

THE GREAT APPLE SURPRISE and the power of TEN was written with the intent that it be used as a teaching tool for Place Value. However, it is the author’s hope that as teachers read this story they will discover other teaching moments within it. If you wish to share your ideas get in touch with us here

Below are some ideas on Place Value teaching moments within the story. Some teachers may like to read the whole story first and then go back and reflect on the teaching moments. Others may stop reading at the teaching moment and have students complete a reflection or activity, even if the book takes a few lessons to complete. With the idea of a surprise at the end the students should remain engaged with the story.

Activity 1

Predicting what the story is about is always a fun way to get the children engaged with the story. To get them thinking mathematically you may ask why the title includes the line ‘..and the power of TEN.’

Activity 2

When James is confused because all the apples have been packed and stacked ask the students for their suggestions on how James and his cousins might be able to count the apples. Will they suggest that the boxes me opened and the apples counted by ones or will they count them by tens or hundreds or will they use their knowledge of place value to work out the number?

Activity 3

On the following page ask students to work out how many apples are in a box and on a pallet based on the knowledge that there are 10 apples on a tray. Students can use blocks, counters or tens frames to make models of the trays, boxes and pallet.

Activity 4

Before turning the page, ask students to reflect on how they would order the packaged apples to make it easier to count them or work out the number. Students could draw the items in the order they choose. This activity could be used as an informal assessment of students’ knowledge of place value. Discuss different variations of order and students’ reasoning.

Activity 5

Once the order is revealed in the book, a discussion on how the items were placed and how the order will help count or work out the number of apples could take place. Compare the order to place value charts. Compare single apples to ones, trays of apples to a group of ten or tens, boxes of apples to a group of one hundred or hundreds and a pallet of boxes to a group of one thousand apples or thousands.

Activity 6

As Charli-Jane places the number on the counting board discuss how the order helped her to build the number using her knowledge of place value.  Students may also see a connection with the expanded notation Charli is writing on her notebook on the previous page.

Activity 7

The idea of place value can be explored further by asking questions such as ‘How would the number change if they found 4 more trays or 2 more boxes?’ etc.

Activity 8

Last year’s total is slowly revealed to the children. With the zero ones and seven tens revealed ask students what the last two numbers could be so that the children get the surprise. Ask students to write down all the options. Have students recognised that it could be a 3 digit number?

Activity 9

For upper primary or lower secondary working in decimals, students could be asked to count the number of boxes of apples including part boxes. This will need a discussion on the unit of measurement. The box is now the single unit or the ones. What part of the box is a tray and a single apple? (A tray being one tenth of a box and a single apple being one hundredth of a box). The pallet becomes a group of ten boxes. So, the answer becomes 15.36 boxes of apples. What about working out the answer in number of pallets and parts of a pallet?