If a Student Can Build 199 with Base Ten Blocks, Can They Count to 199?

Another base ten realization occurred to me today!  Working with one of my intervention groups I had them build the number 199.  I initially had the intention for them to add one more unit after they had counted to 199 for them to cross a century.  This would make the number 200.  While working with the students in the group, only half of them could actually count the number they had built.  Then I realized that students can easily build a number with blocks recognizing the pattern of hundreds, tens, and ones without actually understanding the number they have built.

While I know it may take a while, I suggest that while students are building or representing base ten blocks that students actually show their counting numbers underneath, which I had never thought to make students do before.  I had always taken for granted that students understood the counting numbers if they could build the numbers with blocks, but this regretfully isn’t always the case.