Funny Numbers Converted to Serious Numbers: Regrouping

Funny Numbers are those numbers that are too big for our understanding of double digit numbers. Normally, we look at the number 46 as 4 tens and 6 ones. Funny numbers will call this number thirty-sixteen or twenty-twenty-six or ten-thirty-six.

Making multiple representations of numbers is a critical skill to understand place value and regrouping. When we teach children to carry as they are adding and subtracting multi-digit numbers, this funny number concept will ensure that children really understand the concept of “carry.”

The second page of the first attachment called Funny Numbers Games asks the children to convert two-digit Funny Numbers into what I call Serious Numbers. For example, the Funny Number thirty-twelve is the Serious Number 42. This page also asks the children to convert Serious Numbers into Funny Numbers. For example, the Serious Number 24 is the Funny Number ten-fourteen.

The rest of the pages in this document shows how the children and their parents can play Funny Numbers to Serious Numbers with:

            Place Value: Tens and Ones (regrouping at 10)

            Feet and Inches                     (regrouping at 12)

            Yards and Feet                      (regrouping at 3)

            Dozens and Ones                  (regrouping at 12)

            Pounds and Ounces              (regrouping at 16)

            Hours and Minutes               (regrouping at 60)

We spoke in class about many real life situations where regrouping is necessary to understand a number. For instance, often when I want to see a movie, the information provided by the theater about the length of the film is in minutes. For example, 105 minutes for a movie that is 1 hour and 45 minutes. Thankfully, companies like Netflix always regroups at 60 to record the movie time using hours and minutes.

The majority of the work in class was for the children to add Serious Numbers that would turn into Funny Numbers and then to have them convert the number back to a Serious Number sum. For kindergarteners and 1^st graders, I had them only work on adding two digit numbers regrouping at 10.

For 2^nd through 6^th graders, I added the following categories:

            Place Value: Tens and Ones (regrouping at 10)

            Days and Hours (regrouping at 24)

            Dollars and Quarters (regrouping at 4)

            Dollars and Dimes (regrouping at 10)

            Dollars and Nickels (regrouping at 20)

            Cups and Fluid Ounces (regrouping at 8)

            Gallons and Quarts (regrouping at 4)

            Square Yards and Square Feet (regrouping at 9)

            Cubic Yards and Cubic Feet (regrouping at 27)

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Please keep your children practicing funny numbers at every opportunity. Examples might include talking about your address: I live at ten-nineteen Yorkshire Road (29). When watching football, you might mention a players number using Funny Numbers. When children ask are we there yet, you might tell them how many minutes you will arrive asking them for the Serious Number in Hours and Minutes.