Bundle it into tens
Hand out a pile of straws and say "Count them, but every time you hit ten, rubber-band a bundle." Ten bundles become a hundred. When kids physically build 236 out of bundles and loose straws, the counting-to-1,000 work stops being memorized and starts making sense.
Why it works: kids understand an idea best when they touch it, then draw it, then write it, the order the U.S. Department of Education recommends for elementary math.
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