Differentiating instruction can be difficult, however, when higher performing students yearn to be stretched and lower performing students benefit from scaffolded support. One way to meet these students' learning needs and everyone in-between is to embrace the notion of novel exploration in support of critical school mathematics concepts. Novelty impacts the brain in surprising ways by increasing motivation and perception (Schomaker & Meeter, 2015). Employing novelty has been shown to improve students' reading achievement (Beike & Zentall, 2012), so why not use novelty to improve mathematical understanding? This article promotes the exploration of base-5 manipulatives as a novel way to develop number sense and improve base-10 place value understanding for students.