These silly snakes provide a hiss-terical way for students to explore place value. You’ll need an empty egg carton for each student, as well as glue, markers, stapler, craft materials such as sequins, googly eyes, pipe cleaners, or felt to decorate. Each student will need counters. I use beans. Direct the students to cut the lid off of the egg carton and then cut the base down the middle so that you have two rows of six sections. Then cut each section of six in half so that you have groups of three. Here’s how it works: Each counter you drop into a snake’s hole stands for one unit in that place. The rule is that there can’t be more than nine counters in a hole. You can start with one group of three as the students practice numbers through the hundreds. The students can use two groups of three when they move to numbers through the hundred thousands.