Place Value
Background Information & Activities

Help your children understand the relationship between numbers and place value. Place value is the value of a digit depending on its position in the number, such as ones, tens, hundreds, and thousands places. Any number can be broken down by its place value. For example, 32 can been broken down into 32 ones or 3 groups of ten and 2 ones. We recommend giving your children plenty of manipulatives to explore and represent a variety of numbers.

Remind your children that a number is made up of digits or numerals. For example, the number 3 has one digit, while the number 987 has three digits, 9, 8, and 7. Discuss numbers with your children. What is the biggest number they can find in the room? What is the biggest number they can think of? Help children understand that numbers can be infinitely big or small. Each digit in a number stands for a group, called a place value. Our system of number or writing numbers is called a base-ten system because it is based on groupings of 10.

Show the numbers 1 through 9 with your children and name them out loud. We recommend watching the Even and Odd movie together as a review. You may also want to count different groups of items up to 9 and write the number on the board. We recommend demonstrating with base-ten blocks or connecting cubes. Numbers with one digit have only one place value, the ones place.

Remind your children that when you combine 10 ones, you get a group of ten. Write the number 10 on the board. The digit 1 shows that there is 1 one group of ten and 0 ones. Then show a two-digit number such as 36. The digit farthest to the right is the ones place. That number tells you how many ones are in the number. The digit to its left is the tens place. It tells you how many tens are in the number. Use base-ten blocks or connecting cubes to show that 36 can be shown with 36 ones or with 3 groups of ten and 6 ones.

When you are sure your children thoroughly understand tens and ones, explain that when you combine 100 ones, you get a group of one hundred. When you combine 10 tens, you get a group of one hundred. You can demonstrate different groupings using connecting cubes or base-ten blocks. The third digit from the right shows how many hundreds are in the number. So the number 954 has 9 hundreds, 5 tens, and 4 ones. The number 520 has 5 hundreds, 2 tens, and no ones. You may want to explore using the blocks and writing out the numbers in expanded form: 954 = 900 + 50 +4 and 520 = 500 + 20 + 0. Remind your children that when they read a three-digit number, they must read the first digit, then say “hundred,” and then say the rest of the number, as in nine hundred fifty-four and five hundred twenty.

When you combine 1,000 ones, you get a group of one thousand. When you combine 100 tens, you get a group of one thousand. When you combine 10 hundreds, you also get a group of one thousand. When they are ready, model different groupings of a thousand for your children using blocks. The fourth digit from the right is the thousands place and tells how many thousands are in the number. So in the number 4,392 there are 4 thousands, 3 hundreds, 9 tens, and 2 ones. Children should know that when writing a four-digit number, they should place a comma after the thousands place. As they see bigger numbers, they should notice that commas are placed after every three digits from the right. Explain that when they read a number in the thousands, they should say the first digit, say the word “thousand,” and then say the rest of the three-digit number as usual, as in four thousand three hundred ninety-two.

Reading numbers with zeros or ones in the middle can be challenging for some students because they must remember to hold the place of the digit without saying its exact name. Demonstrate how to read numbers like three hundred eight, four thousand twenty one, six hundred twelve, or five thousand four hundred nineteen. It’s helpful to remind children to read the final two numerals together as a simple two-digit number.

Expose your children to a wide variety of numbers in different contexts, such as in books or on flyers and signs. Have them read different numbers out loud and explore how they can be divided into their place values. We recommend using number lines, connecting cubes, base-ten blocks, place value charts, and hundred charts to help children visualize numbers in different ways.

Place Value Teacher Activities – Click Here!

Place Value Family Activities – Click Here!

Place Value Teacher Activities

Place Value Bingo

Make bingo cards using different numbers. You may want students to make their own bingo cards using one-, two-, or three-digit numbers and then have them swap cards with other students. Then call out different numbers or clues such as “any number with 3 in the ones place” or “any number with no tens.” The first person to get bingo can call out numbers in the next round.

Bean Bag Number Toss

Take 10 separate pieces of paper and label them each from 0 to 9. Then give a student one, two, or three bean bags to throw at different numbers to create a number. For example, if a student throws bags on a 2 and a 3, he or she forms the number 23. Write the number on the board and have students say the number out loud and model the number using manipulatives. Have students take turn throwing bean bags.

Number Clues

Model a number story for your students, such as “There are 7 tens, 1 one, and 9 hundreds.” Then have students write their answers. Divide the students into small groups and have them write or tell each other their own number stories. You may want them to use place value charts to help them solve.

Roll to 100

Students work in pairs to play this collaborative game. They take turns rolling one or two dice and then showing the total of their roll with interlocking cubes or base-ten blocks. They keep rolling and amassing more cubes or blocks and when they have a group of 10 ones, they can swap it for a rod of 10. They can keep track of how many cubes they have by lining them up on or next to a hundred chart. When they have collected 100 cubes they can play again.

Place Value Family Activities

Number Hunt

Take a walk with your child around the neighborhood. Look for one-, two-, three-digit numbers and have your child read them out loud. You may want your child to record the numbers that he or she sees. Discuss each number and ask how many ones, tens, or hundreds are in the number. What is the largest number you can find? What is the smallest number?

Hat Trick

Write the numbers 0 through 9 on separate index cards or scraps of paper and place them in a hat. Have your child draw one, two, or three cards out of the hat. He or she can make different numbers. For example, if your child pulls the numbers 3, 6, and 9, he or she can make 3, 6, 9, 36, 39, 396, 693, etc. Challenge your child to make as many numbers as possible using the cards. What is the smallest number your child can make? What is the largest number? Help your child compare numbers by looking at the largest place values.

Base Ten Strips

Make your own manipulatives with your child at home. On one-inch graph paper have your child color 20 single boxes and then color 20 strips of 10. Help your child cut out the strips and singles. Then you can keep them in a zip-top bag and use them to make numbers that you pick out of a hat or play other number games with them. Your child can even build his or her own 100 chart by gluing 10 strips of 10 onto a poster board and labeling the numbers.