Base-Ten Blocks 3D

Base-Ten Blocks 3D is a hands-on manipulatives table for exploring decimal place value, expanded notation, and regrouping (carrying and borrowing). The 3D classroom mat is organized into four color-coded columns: purple Thousands cubes (10×10×10 = 1,000), red Hundreds flats (10×10 = 100), green Tens rods (1×10 = 10), and blue Ones unit cubes (1). Students can click any column pad or adjust the sliders to place up to 15 blocks in a column, creating non-standard groupings such as 14 tens or 12 ones. Pressing Regroup / Bundle 10 (or clicking the gold Regroup Orb) bundles each group of 10 blocks into 1 block in the next column to the left while keeping the total number unchanged.

• Set Ones to 12 and press Regroup / Bundle 10 to trade 10 blue unit cubes for 1 green ten-rod while watching the Total number readout stay identical.
• Click the green Tens pad until you have more than 10 ten-rods, then bundle 10 rods into 1 red 10×10 hundred-flat.
• Compare the physical 3D size of 1 unit cube, 1 ten-rod, 1 hundred-flat, and 1 thousand-cube by orbiting around the table.
• Read the Expanded form readout (for example 1000 + 300 + 50 + 2) and match each addend to its column of 3D blocks.

1. 1Represent multi-digit whole numbers up to 3,999 using concrete 3D base-ten blocks (thousands, hundreds, tens, and ones).
2. 2Explain why each place value column represents a unit 10 times as large as the column to its right.
3. 3Regroup (bundle) 10 ones into 1 ten, or 10 tens into 1 hundred, and verify that the total numeric value remains constant.
4. 4Translate between concrete base-ten block models, standard numerals, and expanded form.

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