Poker Chips

Poker Chips are a great tool to use to teach for place value, counting, equations, combining like terms, among others. You can get them from Target or the Dollar Tree.

Place Value

Each color could represent a different place value (i.e. red = ones, white = tenths, blue = hundredths). 

Counting

Use them as counters to add, subtract, multiply or divide. To take it a step further, use them as decimals (see Place Value above).

Equations

One color could represent a variable and the other two could represent positive or negative numbers. Use an index card for the equal sign and the operation.

Example:

Blue = Variable

Red = Negative

White = Positive

 1 blue + 2 whites = 3 reds. What is the value of a blue? 5 reds

Combining Like Terms

Each color could be a term.

Blue = x

White = y

Red = Constant

Create this problem:

blue white blue white blue white red red red red white white

Then the students to put the like colors together and write an expression.

Answer: 3x + 5y + 4