Large Numbers and Famous Paintings

I was having an interesting discussion with a few teachers about getting students to understand the value of large numbers. At 3rd grade, any number beyond 4 digits becomes an exercise in abstract art. They have tens, hundreds, and thousands pretty well, but really haven't had a lot of experience with more and unless you can count it, even by 100,000's, you really can't quantify it.

I began to think about my own experiences with this. My family played a lot of board games when we were youngsters and one I remember vividly was called "Masterpiece". It was a game that involved selling and buying famous paintings. There would be auctions where you could purchase paintings, hoping to secure the one worth $1,000,000. Some were worth as little as $150,000, some more. The money came in denominations of $50,000/$100,000/$500,00 and $1,000,000. We had to make change and I think this is where I became familiar with 5 and 6-digit numbers-easily, without thinking about it.

Many fond memories of buying and selling famous paintings

It was that great juxtaposition where math meets necessity. It is what we try to give children in the classroom. Effortlessly using math to do, to create, to solve, to communicate, to advance.

Not only did I gain experience with large numbers, but who can forget Edward Hopper's Night Hawks, Edgar Degas' The Dance Class, or Grant Wood's American Gothic?