How Much Is a Million?
This is a number activity based on the picture book How Much Is a Million?
About this resource
This activity, "Million dollar spend up", is based on the picture book How Much Is a Million? (words by David M. Schwartz and illustrations by Steven Kellogg).
Specific learning outcomes:
- Express place value amounts in multiplicative terms (for example, 10 thousand is 100 x 100).
- Add and subtract the whole number, which amounts to 1,000,000.
How Much Is a Million?
Achievement objectives
NA3-1: Use a range of additive and simple multiplicative strategies with whole numbers, fractions, decimals, and percentages.
NA3-4: Know how many tenths, tens, hundreds, and thousands are in whole numbers.
Description of mathematics
The decimal place value system is based on the fact that each place increases (to the left) or decreases (to the right) by a factor of 10.
Once one understands the magnitude of 1000, then a million can be understood as 1000 thousands.
Required materials
- junk mail
- real estate flyers
- auto trader flyers
- access to the internet
- How Much is a Million? by David M. Schwartz
See Materials that come with this resource to download:
- Place value houses MM (.pdf)
- Million dollar notes MM (.pdf)
Activity: Million dollar spend up
The mathematical magician presents the numbers one million, one billion, and one trillion as a set of scenarios to help his audience conceptualise the vast difference between these numbers.
1.
Prior to reading, explore your students’ understanding and conceptualization of very large whole numbers.
- How long would a million millimetres be?
- How heavy is a million grams?
- If a million is 1000 thousands, how much is a billion in thousands or millions?
- How long would it take to count to a million? A billion? A trillion?
Review the place value house designations for million, billion, and trillion.
1
10
100
1,000
10,000
100,000
1,000,000
10,000,000
100,000,000
1,000,000,000
10,000,000,000
100,000,000,000
1,000,000,000,000
2.
Share the book with your students. As you read the story, refer back and forth to the models presented for comparison. For example, when you reach the description of counting to one billion, refer back to what it was to count to one million. Before you get to the trillion section, ask students to predict how long it will take to count, how big the goldfish bowl will be, and how long the pages of stars will be.
3.
Discuss a few examples from the book. Relate these back to the large numbers recorded at the beginning of the session. A million is 1000 thousands, a billion is 1000 millions, and a trillion is 1000 billions. There are examples on the internet of pictures or models of these numbers in dollars or grains of rice.
4.
After reading, give each student a million-dollar note (from the numeracy place value money!). Tell them they have a million dollars to spend, and set your class criteria together.
For example:
- Will they be limited to a certain percentage for donations to charities?
- Will they have to have a theme for their individual spend-up (for example, setting up a horse farm or an orchestra)?
- What are your expectations for the presentation (for example, will they create a poster with pictures of each thing they buy or a PowerPoint presentation?).
- How will the maths be recorded: as a running total or a subtraction list?
- If they buy multiples of things (like 4 airfares), how will they show their calculations?
5.
Following these projects, explore what a billion dollars means.
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