PLACE VALUE IDEAS AND ACTIVITIES
This is a quick reference guide to the teaching of place value to support planning and teaching. It is not an exhaustive list but you can access lots more ideas, activities and resources in the following NNS publications to support planning, teaching and assessment –
Numbers and patterns folder
Overcoming Barriers L1 – 5 (see additional handout)
Securing Levels L1 – L5 including ‘What I can do’ booklets
Teaching children to calculate mentally
Teaching mental calculation strategies to L5
Supporting children with gaps in their mathematical understanding – Wave 3
Models and images charts (which also contain common misconceptions and errors)
Also useful
Negotiating meaning proforma
Mathematical dictionaries
Mathematical vocabulary cards (refer to year group expectations)
• Place value arrow cards up to a million and decimals (teacher and
•
•
•
• child) hundredths etc
Gattegno tables (teacher and child)
100 and 20 bead strings
Equipment and resources to support teaching and learning for all abilities
Place value dice up to a million
Place value charts showing distinction between HTU, tenths,
• A range of labelled and unlabelled number lines
• Number tracks
• Digit cards
• Number fans
• Dienes equipment
• Five and ten frames
• Straws
Remember the five strands of place value needs to be explicitly taught during lessons but also kept bubbling throughout the term.
USED WITH PERMISSION FROM SARAH MARTIN CONSULTANCY Ltd

COMPARING AND ORDERING
What is the same about?
• Write down as many things as you can think of that are the same about two numbers.
• You get extra points for using lots of different ideas and for coming up with ideas that no-one else thinks of.
• Sentences should begin: ‘They are both …’ or ‘They both …’
• Relate to different ranges of numbers and measurement.
Play your cards right!
• Use a hidden line of numbers e.g. to 20, 50, 100, 1, 1000, 10,000, decimal numbers, fractions, percentages, units of measurement.
• Choose a contestant to establish if each number in the line is going to be higher or lower than the one before and explain why.
• Audience participation is encouraged. Reveal each number in turn.
Prove it!
Use a range of concrete, pictorial and symbolic recording to prove the quantity and column value of different numbers including decimals.
Compare and order with explanations and using mathematical vocabulary.
What is ..?
Using any number ‘6, 23, 230 or 2.3’ (according to age and ability) ask children to explain what the number is using a pencil and paper to record their answers. What do you notice?
Provide children with a wealth of practical equipment (e.g. straws, counting objects, 100 beads, base 10 equipment, 100 squares). Ask children to represent the same number using the practical equipment.
Tip
Provide plenty of opportunities for children to order from largest to smallest. They are likely to be more confident ordering from smallest to largest.
USED WITH PERMISSION FROM SARAH MARTIN CONSULTANCY Ltd

READING AND WRITING NUMERALS
Bubbling questions!
Amend and adapt the following questions to different number ranges.
1.
Can you write in figures the number two hundred and seven?
2.
Read these numbers: 671 and 617. Which is smaller? How do you know?
Spot the number!
Encourage child to discuss, make lists and take and display photographs of numbers in the environment and different contexts e.g. whole, decimal and digital numbers and measurement.
• Where are they found? Why are they used? What if we did not have numbers?
• What mathematical properties did each of the numbers have?
Writing cheques
Provide children with varying amounts of money to count and ask them to write the total in words and numbers (pound and pence notation) on a paper cheque.
USED WITH PERMISSION FROM SARAH MARTIN CONSULTANCY Ltd

PARTITIONING AND RECOMBINING
Canonical and non-canonical
Ensure that children are encouraged to partition numbers in different ways e.g. 23 can be 2 tens and 3 units or 18 and 5.
This should be developed for all number ranges including decimal numbers.
Bubbling questions!
Amend and adapt the following questions to different number ranges.
• How many different pairs of numbers can you find that total 8?
• This bead string shows one way of partitioning 54 into some tens and ones. What other ways can you think of?
• 328 is made up of 300, 8 and what?
• 472 can be partitioned into 300 + 170 + 2. Can you partition 472 in other ways?
• What is the value of the digit 5 in these numbers 352, 65, 511, 0.75?
Amazing arrow cards
• Ask children to make a given number using arrow cards. The number may be printed in digit form on cards or on the board, written in words or the number may be said verbally.
• Teacher/adult says . . .
‘Show me a number that does not have any tens/hundreds/thousands etc.’
‘Make a three digit number with all the digits the same’
‘Make a number between 70 and 80 or 320 and 330’
• ‘Start by making, for example, 436, and then . . .
Make a number that is 1, 10, 100, 50, 300 more/1, 10, 100, 50, 300 less
Make a number 10 times bigger/smaller
Make a number that is 100 times bigger/smaller
Gattegno tables
Ask the same questions as above but use a child version as a show me response.
Place value dice
Roll the dice, order the dice and recombine for a total.
USED WITH PERMISSION FROM SARAH MARTIN CONSULTANCY Ltd

POSITIONING NUMBERS ON A NUMBER TRACK OR LINE
Use a card and paperclip to establish positions of numbers.
• Use child size versions made from a strip of card and an elastic band/paper clip for a whole class response.
• Children use their card to show positions of numbers e.g. ‘If this end is 0 and this end is 100, what number is in the middle?’ ‘Show me where 25 is’.
• PROVE IT!!!
• Relate to different ranges of numbers and measurement.
Bubbling questions!
Amend and adapt the following questions to different number ranges.
1.
Where should these numbers be placed on this number line? 350, 699, 425, 862. Explain how you decided.
2.
Can you mark on this number line the number that is 20 more than 56?
3.
Can you put numbers in each box so that all the numbers are in order?
4.
Which multiples of 10 are between 386 and 421?
USED WITH PERMISSION FROM SARAH MARTIN CONSULTANCY Ltd

ROUNDING
Prove it!
Use manipulatives to prove how you round to the nearest 10, 100 etc and start to develop a rule from the results e.g. using base 10 materials count out 42. If you want to round to the nearest 10 you could show that to get to 40 is only 2 cubes away but 50 is 8 cubes away, therefore 42 is closer to 40 than 50. If you do this several times with different numbers and base 10 materials it will show how important 5 is as the middle marker.
This can then be applied to the representation of on a number line.
This needs to be proved practically for all number ranges rather than children just learning a rule.
Bubbling questions!
Ask open questions such as:
A number rounded to the nearest 10 is 30. What could the number be?
I think of a number and round it to the nearest 10. The answer is 50. What could my number be?
Discuss practical situations to help.
In context
Ensure that rounding is used in different contexts e.g. money, length, weight, capacity, decimals, time.
USED WITH PERMISSION FROM SARAH MARTIN CONSULTANCY Ltd