DIY 6-Sided Magnetic 100's Chart

In an effort to give my kids the childhood I never had (wink), I've made this large wooden, magnetic 100's chart with five levels of learning.  There is a black and white version that I think of as the "neutral" position, which has the magnetic side facing down on my board.  I'm calling that side the "counting by ones" side.  Then, there is the "counting by twos" side, where the numbers are shades of grey.  There are the "counting by threes" side and the "counting by fives" side, in which the corresponding numbers are highlighted by a lighter shade of color (see the pictures above).  Lastly, there is the "rainbow" side where the numbers are colored in sets of tens (all the 20's are one color, the fifties are another, etc).  I'm hoping that this level of hands-on learning will really help my kids to master the 100-chart, the patterns in numbers, skip counting, and other number related knowledge.

I also included this "Monster Mystery" worksheet as part of the packet.  If you laminate it or use it with a page protector, it can be used over and over to test a child's knowledge of numbers.  With the 100 chart blocks in the "ones" (black and white) position, the teacher/parent can grab out ten numbers at random and replace them with the monster blocks.  Then, the child can look at the chart and figure out which numbers are missing.  The parent could "hide" the missing numbers or hand the numbers to the child to be replaced in the chart in the correct place.  I'm sure that there are other ways you and your child could figure out to play.

To download the file, click here.

It occurred to me after I made the orginal PDF that I really should start the 100-chart at the number 0 so that the "tens places" line up in a column.  I made the rainbow side with the colored zero, and included a "neutral" zero for the "counting by ones" side.  You can get the amended page here.

The wood blocks came from the Etsy shop, I Used to be a Tree.  They worked perfectly for this project, and I recommend that you buy the blocks from them if you want to do this project.

The magnetic side was made with magnetic sticker sheets.  I was able to do all 111 (0-100 number cubes and 10 monsters) with one pack of magnetic paper.