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E: Learning to understand and use place value to solve problems

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Target group: Students in years 3–6

Focusing on:

  • creating models of whole numbers using place value materials
  • ordering three-digit numbers
  • using place value partitioning as a strategy to solve addition and subtraction problems.

 

Teacher observation over a range of activities

The student may have rote-learned place value names and may be able to identify the digit in the tens or hundreds place but cannot create a model of whole numbers. The student may not understand 10 as the basis of our number system and may see 1 purely as a counting unit.

Possible barriers to the student’s progress

  1. Limited understanding of place value notation
  2. Difficulty visualising place value groupings
  3. Limited understanding of groupings of ten

Click to download as a PDF (1.1MB).