Ice Cream Base 10 Puzzles

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Understanding base 10 and place value is a foundational skill for building up solid number sense and problem solving. We had a blast working on this skill with these fun and perfect for summer base 10 “ice cream” puzzles!

We have really become strong at identifying numbers and knowing their names. However, understanding quantity and place value are skills that are at times a bit trickier.

For example, knowing the number 27 and counting 27 items is different than knowing that 27 is made up of 2 tens and 7 ones.

So, like we do whenever we are learning and exploring something knew, we tackled it head on with a fun learning activity!

I printed out these “ice cream” base 10 puzzles (below) and cut them apart to have on hand in a math center. I laminated them to keep them sturdy, which also means I can save them from year to year.

I started by playing this game in a small group. I placed the ice cream “scoops” in a pile for us to draw from, and then I spread out the “cones” so that we could see the numbers on them.

We each took turns drawing a scoop. We counted up the base 10 blocks together, helping each other as needed. This game has a variety numbers to 100, so you could choose which to use, depending on your kids.

Once we knew the quantity on the scoop, we hunted for the matching number cone and put them together.

We kept playing until all of the cones had been matched!

After playing it in small groups, my kids knew the routine and I left it out as an independent math center for more practice.

You could even make it self-checking by writing the number on the back of the scoops. Kids match them up, then turn them over to see if they were correct!

Grab Your Copy

Ready for some base 10 fun? Grab your copy of the ice cream base 10 puzzles by clicking the yellow button below! Then, for more ice cream fun, create an ice cream themed small world!