Snowball
Place Value
If we lived in Alaska, where it is very cold
To study place value outside we’d go.
We’d gather up snowballs... not to have a fight,
Place value we’d study all day and all night.
We’d gather up snowballs and stack them by ten
Using stacks of ten,,, we would count them again.
But we live in Florida, where there is no snow,
So we’ll have to use our imaginations, you know.
We’ll take little cotton balls, the white fluffy kind...
We’ll pretend that they’re snowmen... Florida designed
Grouping together by ten... only makes sense
Counting one by one... would be total nonsense.
Our ten tiny cotton balls, we’ll glue them together
We’ll make unique snowmen, now aren’t we clever,
But what if we have... a few snowballs that don’t fit
If they can’t make a ten these snowballs will just sit.
Now let’s review how we’ll make snowmen without snow
We’ll take a bunch of cotton balls and organize them so...
Ten cotton balls will become snowmen...way down south
It’s easy if you just add eyes, nose and a mouth.
Using ten-based place value is really the best
Making snowmen of tens... and snowballs the rest
Using tens and ones...counting is made mighty easy......
Our snowmen and snowballs will make us feel breezy.
1 ten and 5 ones = 15
Written by Barbara Gurian 2009