Arrow Cards and how to use them

Arrow Cards are cards that help children to gain a deeper understanding of place value. As the name suggests each card has an arrow. When creating multi-digit numbers, children line the arrows up to combine numbers. Equally children can easily understand numbers and the meaning of each digit by pulling the place value cards apart.

What makes them beneficial?

Arrow cards are excellent for showing children the fundamental structure and meaning of our number system. They are a super bridge between concrete materials and conceptual understanding. Time spent exploring and using arrow cards is time well spent.

Arrow cards can be used to show the place value of any number, from units, tens, hundreds etc to tenths, hundredths, thousandths etc.

When children are exploring numbers within 100, arrow cards in the forms of tens and units should be used. At this stage you want pupils to:

• be able to put units and tens together to create numbers.

• link and match the arrow cards with the relevant diennes blocks.

• link and match the arrow cards with other concrete materials such as the rekenrek.

• expand the cards to show the meaning of each digit.