Have you been looking for a place value explanation to help get through your child’s homework? It’s hard to find a complete place value explanation all in one place, isn’t it? Well don’t worry parents, I’ve put everything in one place for you with this blog post! Whether your child’s place value journey is just beginning or your child is a seasoned pro at place value and just needs a little recap. This blog post will cover which place value topics and skills your child will conquer throughout primary school.
Before we tackle place value, let’s talk transfer test. Is your child preparing for the transfer test this year? If so, I’ve got a little treat for you! Here is a FREE SEAG-style practice paper and teaching guide. This paper is perfect for introducing your child to practice papers as it has a nice calming font and appearance. You can’t deny that a good font changes everything! Click here to download your FREE test paper!
Place Value Definition Math
Place value is a major topic that your child will cover throughout primary school. It is the whole number system! The place value simple definition is that place value is the digits that make up a number. The number can be a whole number or a decimal number.
The topic of place value will teach your child skills that they will need throughout their whole lives, even if they don’t take a career path in maths! Place value teaches us to identify the value of a digit depending on its position in a number. For example, if we take the number 536, we can see there is a 5 in the hundreds column, worth 500, a 3 in the tens column, worth 30 and a 6 in the units or one’s column, which is worth 6.
What place value topics does your child learn in school?
As your child moves through primary school, what they learn in place value will progress from tens and units or ones to decimal place value which is what they will need to know by the time they come to Primary 7. Getting a good understanding of place value from the beginning stages is essential for your child to work with numbers easily.
The Northern Ireland Curriculum for Key Stage 2 Maths states that your child should, ‘develop an understanding of place value up to two decimal places; use this to multiply and divide numbers by 10 and 100.’ So let’s take it right back to the place value topics that will lead your child to this destination.
Place Value Explanation: Whole Numbers
The first stop on your child’s place value journey will be the value of digits in whole numbers. Some schools will teach your child up to the thousands columns whereas others may teach up to the tens or hundreds of thousands columns. The Northern Ireland Curriculum states that your child must learn place value up to at least 1000, so as long as they get to here then that’s all the curriculum asks of them at primary school. But before they end up at this point, your child will work with hundreds, tens and units or ones. Let’s break them down, one by one!
Units or Ones
You may see the terms ‘units’ or ‘ones’ used interchangeably for this column when working with place value. It just depends on your child’s teacher and which term they prefer to use but they both mean the same thing. For this blog post, I will use the term units.
Units are the smallest form of a whole number. These are the numbers from 0 to 9 and they represent 1, which is why they are referred to as ones when talking about place value. When working on place value in school, your child’s teacher may use Base 10 blocks or cubes as a practical way to teach place value. Units will be presented as one cube.
Tens
The tens column is the next part of place value your child will work with. The tens digit is the second digit of a number which is to the left of the units. The digit in the tens column tells us how many tens are in a number and can be a digit from 0 to 9. For example, let’s look at the number 87. There is an 8 digit in the tens column however, it is not worth 8. It’s worth 80. A tip for helping your child understand this is to either multiply the digit in the tens column by 10, 8 x 10 = 80. My other tip is to ask your child to say the number aloud, ‘Eighty-seven.’ When you say the number aloud, you can hear that the 8 digit is worth 80 and not 8.
When using Base 10 or cubes to explain the tens column, your child will create a tower of 10 cubes or blocks. If using Base 10 materials, a tower of 10 will be already joined together for your child.
Hundreds
The hundreds column is the third part of place value that your child will learn about. The hundreds column will contain the third digit of a number moving left from right. Let’s take the number 309. There is a 3 in the hundreds column but remember its value isn’t 3. The value of this digit is 300. We can check this is correct by following the tips from above. Either say the number aloud, ‘Three hundred and nine,’ or multiply 3 by 100, 3 x 100 = 300. This time we multiply by 100 and not 10 because we are working with the hundreds column.
Thousands
The thousands column is where the fourth digit, moving left from right in a number. Using the number 2345 as an example, we can see that there is a 2 in the thousands column. Let me hear you say it…this is not worth 2, it’s worth 2000. Again, ask your child to say this number aloud, ‘Two thousand, three hundred and forty-five.’ If we multiply by 2 by 1000, 2 x 1000 = 2000 which is the value of the 2 in the thousands column.
Ten Thousand and Hundred Thousand
As more digits get added to the left of the thousands column, it becomes ten thousand and a hundred thousand. Your child may work with these larger numbers in place value throughout primary school. They may even work up into the millions! As long as they remember that each time a digit is added to the left, it increases in value.
Decimal Place Value Explanation
The next stop on your child’s place value journey will be decimal place value. At first, my students struggled with this part of place value. It can be quite tricky, if not explained well to them. So read this decimal place value explanation carefully and read it more than once.
The Northern Ireland Curriculum states that students must develop an understanding of place value up to two decimal places. However, if your child is sitting the transfer test, some questions appear up to three decimal places so I will cover up to three decimal places in this blog post.
What are decimal places?
The term decimal places or decimal place value is used when talking about numbers which are not whole numbers. All whole numbers have a decimal point and then a zero after them, we just don’t see it when working with these numbers as it’s not needed. However, some numbers can be broken down even further, by having numbers after the decimal point. Decimals can be numbers in between a whole number or else represent a fraction. Your child will learn fractions as decimals in Primary 6 or 7 and they will begin to just know them off the top of their heads.
One Decimal Place: Tenths
The tenths column appears to the right of the units column and is separated from it by a decimal point. Take note of the spelling of tenths, it’s not ‘tens’ it’s got a ‘th’ at the end. This is a key clue to look out for during place value questions, especially in the transfer test.
Tenths are created by splitting a whole number into ten equal parts. For example, one-tenth is written as 0.1. You can see there is a 1 after the decimal point, in the tenths column. Tenths may appear in your child’s homework as the word, ‘tenths,’ or in fraction form, 1/10s.
Two Decimal Places: Hundredths
The hundredths column appears to the right of the tenths column. This is two decimal places after the decimal point. Once again, take note of the spelling of hundredths, it’s not ‘hundreds,’ just like tenths it’s got a ‘th’ at the end of the word. Hundredths may appear in your child’s homework as the word, ‘hundredths,’ or in fraction form, 1/100s.
Hundredths are created by splitting a whole number into one hundred equal parts. One hundredth is written as 0.01. Hundredths are smaller than tenths as it is a number broken into one hundred equal parts. This is the opposite of tens and hundreds, as hundreds are bigger than tens. However, after the decimal point, everything changes. Tenths are bigger than hundredths, hundredths are bigger than thousandths and so on. After the decimal point, everything is opposite compared to before the decimal point.
To help explain this to your child, ask them to think of two big chocolate cakes. If they cut one into ten equal pieces and one into one hundred equal pieces, which cake would have the largest slices? The cake with ten slices, that’s the cake I would be going to! You can do this practically if you want to show your child visually the difference between tenths and hundredths. However, cutting a cake into one hundred slices may take some time!
Three Decimal Places: Thousandths
The thousandths column appears to the right after the hundredths column. That’s three places after the decimal point! Just like tenths and hundredths, the spelling of thousandths contains a ‘th.’ It can appear in your child’s homework as the word ‘thousandths’ or the fraction 1/1000s.
Thousandths are created by splitting a whole number into one thousand equal parts. One thousandth is written as 0.001. Thousandths are smaller than hundredths as it is a number broken into one thousand equal parts.
Place Value Explanation: Multiplying and Dividing by 10, 100 and 1000
As well as identifying the value of digits in the various columns we have talked about above, your child will also begin multiplying and dividing these numbers by 10, 100 and 1000! They will start using whole numbers before doing this with decimals.
Whole Numbers
Let’s start with whole numbers. A great tip for multiplying whole numbers by 10, 100 or 1000 is to simply add the number of zeros onto the whole number you are multiplying by 10, 100 or 1000 and you will get your answer. Easy peasy lemon squeezy! This is a brilliant time for speeding up your child’s working out. For example, if we are multiplying 35 by 10, we simply add one zero onto 35 as there is one zero in the number 10, 35 x 10 = 350. Another example is multiplying 62 by 100. Count how many zeros are in 100 and add this to the end of the number 62, 6200.
If we are dividing by 10, 100 or 1000, we will be doing the opposite, taking the number of zeros off. For example, if your child is asked to divide 200 by 10, we can take one zero, as there is one zero in 10, off 200 which gives us 20. Another example is dividing 4500 by 100. Count how many zeros are in 100 and take these off the end of the number 4500, 45.
Decimal Numbers
Once your child has mastered multiplying and dividing whole numbers by 10, 100 and 1000, they will tackle decimal numbers. This is a bit trickier and my students do get a bit confused at the beginning with this. But don’t worry, we’ll go through it step by step together so you can help your child out!
There are two ways to teach your child how to multiply and divide decimal numbers by 10, 100 and 1000. One of them can be frowned upon by some teachers but easier for students to understand and the other, all teachers are happy with but can be a bit tricker for students. Of course, I am going to tell you about both ways.
Method 1: Move the decimal
Confession time, I encourage my students to move the decimal. However, some teachers and tutors do not like to teach it this way because it’s not the ‘proper mathematical method.’ I have tried both ways with my students and moving the decimal is the easiest method for them and they will get the same answer using both methods.
When multiplying by 10, 100 or 1000, we move the decimal point to the right, as when multiplying we make the number bigger. How many spaces we move the decimal point, depends on how many zeros are on 10, 100 or 1000. For example, if we are multiplying 45.03 by 10, we move the decimal point one space to the right as there is only one 0 in ten. This gives us an answer of 450.3.
When dividing, we move the decimal point to the left, as when dividing we make the number smaller. If we divide 678.92 by 100, we move the decimal point two spaces to the left as there are two 0s in one hundred. This gives us an answer of 6.7892.
Method 2: Move the numbers
The ‘proper mathematical method’ is to move the numbers instead of the decimal point. The same rules apply as method 1, you move the numbers right for multiplying and left for dividing. If we are multiplying by 10, we move the numbers 1 space to the right, as there is one 0 in 10.
Let’s take the number 45.03, if we multiply this number by 10, we will shift all of the numbers one space to the right. This gives us an answer of 450.3. With method 2, be sure to remind your child that the decimal point does not move. It stays in the same place with only the numbers moving.
If we are dividing, we shift each of the numbers to the left. For example, 34.672 divided by 1000, we move all the numbers three spaces to the left. If there are blank gaps from moving the numbers, we can put 0s here. The answer to this sum is 0.034672.
Place values explained for rounding
Another way that place value will make an appearance in your child’s homework is through rounding. To be able to round numbers to the nearest ten, hundred, thousand or decimal places, your child will need to have a good understanding of place value. Why are place value and rounding linked? Because it’s all about the digits baby! When we are rounding to the nearest ten, we look at the digit in the units column. When rounding to the nearest hundred, we look at the digit in the tens column. If we are rounding to the nearest thousand, we look at the digit in the hundreds column.
Rounding activities are a great way to develop and support your child’s understanding of place value. This topic makes an appearance throughout your child’s homework from probably Primary 5 and above. Rounding can also come up in the transfer test so a solid understanding of place value is beneficial for your child to have.
Place Value Explanation: Partitioning
What is partitioning? You’ve probably seen it popping up in your child’s place value homework or transfer test practice papers already. Partitioning is the process of splitting numbers into different parts. With this type of question, your child can be asked to partition whole numbers, decimal numbers or money. For example, ‘What is the value of the underlined digit in £72.15?’ The value of the underlined digit in this question is 10p.
Let’s try another one! What is the value of the underlined digit in the number 561.204? The value of the 4 in this number is 4 thousandths or 0.004. These examples are partitioning questions.
Place Value Explanation: Ordering
The next type of place value question that your child will be working with is ordering numbers from smallest to largest or largest to smallest. They can also be asked which is the bigger or smaller number. When it comes to ordering numbers, your child will be asked to order whole numbers first and then progress to decimal numbers and money. Understanding the value of each digit in numbers is an essential skill for ordering amounts and numbers.
Activities to develop your child’s understanding of place value
If your child has been asking, ‘How do you calculate the place value?’ try some fun activities with them! There are lots of great activities you can complete with your child at home to develop their understanding of place value. Of course, online games are a great, fun way to develop your child’s learning of this topic. Topmarks has some great place value games such as Place Value Basketball, Bead Numbers and Place Value Charts.
Another great activity is to grab a dice and get rolling! Use the first number to get the digit for the units column, the second roll gets you the tens digit and so on. See how many numbers you and your child can create! During this game, you can give your child a place value explanation about the numbers they create with the dice.
Anyone who’s followed my blog for a while will know I love to add a nature-related activity to everything! There’s nothing better than being outdoors right? My nature-themed place value activity is to gather some stones, rocks or shells from our local park, beach or nature trail. Use some paints or markers to add the numbers 0-9 onto the stones. Ask your child to close their eyes, choose some rocks and create a number with a digit in the units, tens, hundreds and thousands columns. Make sure you have a rock that you can use as a decimal point and you can complete this activity with decimal place value as well.
How will place value appear in your child’s homework?
Place value can appear in your child’s homework in several ways. It may appear through rounding questions, identifying the value of digits in different columns, partitioning numbers, ordering numbers, creating specific numbers or creating their own place value chart. A great resource to help your child understand place value is a place value chart. I have linked a place value chart example here for you. Place value charts will help your child with partitioning, ordering and understanding whole numbers and decimal numbers.
No matter how place value makes an appearance, use the tips I have provided or other educators online, to teach your child place value at their own pace.
How to explain place value to your child during homework time?
So how can you help your child with their place value homework? The best way to help your child if they are getting frustrated or confused with place value is to find out exactly where they are struggling. Are they struggling with finding the units, tens, hundreds and thousands columns, is it decimal place value that’s got them stuck or is it multiplying and dividing by 10, 100 and 1000 that’s stressing them out? You need to know where they are struggling so you help them in the correct area.
Now that you have found out which area of place value your child is struggling with, what should you do next? Before downloading worksheet after worksheet, complete a practical activity with your child. Play games, create posters, and do something active or creative such as using place value counters examples to make hundreds, tens and units for example. These types of activities will help to fuse the skills needed to place value into their wee minds. Once they are beginning to grasp the topic of place value, introduce some worksheets to further enhance their learning. I have some fun place value worksheets in my store which you can check out!
More Information on Place Value Explanation
What Is Place Value? Explained For Primary School
55 Amazing Alternatives to Place Value Worksheets
Place Value – Definition with Examples
I hope this blog post provides you with some relief and help during your child’s place value homework! And provided you with a place value summary of what your child will cover during their time in primary school. If you would like to know a bit more about other topics, keep an eye on my blog because I have lots more tutoring goodness coming soon! To keep you going until then, check out this blog post all about fractions!
Don’t forget to sign up here for your free SEAG-style practice paper! If you have any more questions about place value explanation, get in touch with me!
