One of my favorite math lessons to do with Upper El children is converting base 10 numbers to base 2, aka “binary” numbers. To me, this is an example of learning a math concept just for the fun of it – you won’t find this on a standardized test and isn’t something they have to know. It’s about learning something just for the “art of math.” The kids just think it’s cool, feeling like they are doing “big” math – something advanced that they almost shouldn’t be doing! They are always quite proud and excited to be a part of this lesson.

We talk about how binary is the language that computers speak, which is usually intriguing, especially for those kids who are interested in programming and other tech endeavors.

I use the golden decimal mat to correlate the place values of base 10 numbers to place values in base 2. We use volume cube blocks to see how many blocks each place gets before we fill the place and to move to the next.  After they understand that each place after units receives subsequent powers of 2, they are ready to move on to converting abstractly.

Using volume blocks for learning base 2