Power of Ten Activity for Kids

We learned about the powers of ten by counting, estimating and pretending the number of beads up to 100,000.

1

10

100

1

10

100

1000

One thousand was estimated. After counting out one hundred beads, it was determined one and a half hand fulls roughly equaled one hundred. We simply poured ten hand fulls to reach one thousand.

Ten thousand was also estimated. After estimating one thousand it was determined that it took two bags full of beads to equal one thousand. Ten piles of one thousand were laid out to equal ten thousand.

From there we ran out of beads. Ten thousand is a lot of beads which can be held in a cardboard box roughly one foot square.

Therefore, ten similar sized empty cardboard boxes were gathered to pretend  100,000 - one hundred thousand beads.

This short video gives a visual representation of numbers up to one trillion and the Pondering Large Numbers post on Let's Play Math has a few more videos and an excellent large number line activity for kids.

Be sure to check out these blog hops for more great kid educational activities.