This Printable Base 10 Blocks worksheet gives 2nd graders cut-out hundreds, tens, and ones blocks to build numbers by hand — a no-prep, hands-on way to make place value, counting, and addition click.
This finding 10 more 10 less activity helps 1st and 2nd grade children use a hundred chart to find 10 more and 10 less. Practice page and answer key included.
This rainbow place value activity has children match pots of gold to tens and ones cards. Made for Kindergarten to 2nd Grade, with a practice page and answer key included.
The Place Value Party Place Value Activity lets 1st to 3rd Grade students spin numbers, build them with base-ten cards and write expanded form. Answer key included.
This St. Patrick's Day place values activity has 2nd-3rd grade students match three-digit numbers to expanded form cards. Answer key included, so checking is quick and easy.
Match standard, word and expanded form with this PBJ place value activity for 4th grade: 30 sandwich, peanut butter and jelly cards, a recording sheet and practice, answer key included.
This popcorn mental math activity lets 2nd and 3rd grade students add and subtract 10 and 100 in their heads with a fun partner card game, recording sheet, and practice page. Answer key included.
This 3.NBT.1 Common Core Activity lets 3rd Grade students round numbers to the nearest 10 or 100 by sorting 24 cards into Round Up and Round Down, with an answer key included.
In this 5.NBT.6 Common Core Activity, students find whole-number quotients of whole numbers with up to four-digit dividendsand two-digit divisors.
This round it up or down ice cream activity has 3rd and 4th grade students match number scoops to cones by rounding to the nearest ten and hundred. Answer key included for quick checking.
In this Scooping Up Hundreds Rounding Activity, students use place value understanding to round whole numbers to the nearest 100.
Every digit has a home address
Place value is the idea that a digit is worth more or less depending on where it sits. It grows with kids: first graders bundle ones into tens, 2nd graders work with hundreds, 3rd and 4th graders stretch to thousands and beyond, and 5th graders slide past the decimal point into tenths and hundredths. The same rule runs the whole way: each place is ten times the place to its right. So in 4,527 the 5 is worth 500, and in 0.5 it is worth just five tenths. When kids see that pattern, regrouping, rounding and decimals stop feeling like three separate topics.
Place value is abstract until kids can see and touch it. These three moves take them from blocks to digits without losing anybody along the way.
Give partners a pile of base ten blocks and a trading mat. Every time they collect ten unit cubes, they must trade them in for one rod, and ten rods for a flat. Saying "I traded ten ones for one ten!" out loud is the exact thinking kids need later for regrouping.
Why it works: going from real objects to pictures to symbols is a core recommendation of the U.S. Department of Education's elementary math guide.
Try it withPrintable Base 10 BlocksActivitiesOpen it →Keep a place value chart on every desk for the whole unit. Kids drop each digit into its column before they say the number, so a zero in the tens place never goes missing. Once they can read 3,048 off the chart, take the chart away and see if they can still do it.
Why it works: pairing a picture with each word gives kids two ways to remember it, a well-tested principle of how people learn (Mayer, 2009).
Try it withPlace Value Thousands, Hundreds, Tens, Ones WorksheetWorksheetsOpen it →Start math with a two-minute warm-up: write one big number on the board and point to a digit. Kids write its value on a whiteboard and flash it up. Mix in tricky ones like the 0 in 506, because that is where the mistakes hide.
Why it works: researchers who compared ten study methods found practice testing is one of the two that work best (Dunlosky and colleagues, 2013).
Try it withDetermining Place Value GameGamesOpen it →A little competition and a lot of digits. These quick games turn practice into the best part of the day.
WorksheetsEach player draws four digit cards and arranges them to make the largest number possible. Read both numbers aloud and compare with a greater-than sign.
Open Four Digit Place Value Worksheet →
WorksheetsCall out a number and have kids jump forward or back by ten on a hundreds chart. Notice which digit changes and which one stays put!
Open Ten More Ten Less Worksheet →
WorksheetsGive clues like "I have 3 hundreds, no tens and 7 ones." The first one to build it with blocks gets to give the next clue.
Open Hundreds Tens Ones Worksheet →Teacher favorites right now: Printable Base 10 Blocks, Finding 10 More 10 Less Activity and Rainbow Place Value Activity.
It starts in kindergarten and 1st grade with tens and ones, then grows every year. Second grade adds hundreds, 4th grade works with numbers into the millions, and 5th grade extends place value to decimals.
Usually because they learned digits before they understood what a ten really is. Zeros cause the most trouble, as in writing 4,007 as 47. Going back to blocks and a place value chart fixes most of it fast.
They are models of place value: a small cube is one, a rod is ten, a flat is one hundred and a big cube is one thousand. Printable paper blocks work just as well as plastic ones for building and drawing numbers.
Regrouping is place value in action. When kids know that ten ones make a ten, "carrying" and "borrowing" become trading, and the steps finally make sense instead of feeling like magic.
The same pattern keeps going to the right of the decimal point. Each place is one tenth of the place before it, so 0.3 is three tenths and 0.03 is three hundredths.
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