Place Value

Your child needs to have a thorough understanding of the concept of Place Value. Without this, they will struggle to come to terms with all the basic skills (addition, subtraction, multiplication and division etc).

To put it simply, place value means knowing the value of the separate digits in a number.
For example: Take the number four hundred and twenty three (423)

The value of the digit 3 is three units (3)

The value of the digit 2 is two tens (20)

and the value of the digit 4 is four hundreds (400)

So the key objective is to know that the value of each digit in a number depends on its position, or place, within the number and that each place is 10 times larger than the place to its right or 1/10th the of the value of the place to its left.

Another important concept is the use of zero (0) - It is basically a place holder and used to convey the fact that there are no amounts of that particular value in that position.

For example: 206 - two hundreds, no tens and six units.

This knowledge makes it easy to multiply or divide by 10's and 100's etc.

To multiply by 10, simply move the entire number one place left.

To divide by 10, simply move the entire number one place right.

To multiply by 100, move the entire number two places left.

To divide by 100, move the entire number two places right.

(move the number by the amount of zero's - '10' move 1 place, '100' move 2 places etc)

Avoid explaining this as moving the dot (Freddy the Flea) - children need to understand that the decimal point remains in the same position - this is important in further calculation methods.

Tip - When working with calculations on lined paper, rotate the pad 90 degrees (landscape) this will help to keep the numbers in the correct place.

Try this game from BBC Bitesize - Play in Full Screen window