Place Value

Every number is built from tens

Place value is the idea that a digit's worth depends on where it sits: the 4 in 40 and the 4 in 400 are the same digit doing different jobs. Understand that once, and reading, writing and comparing any number, however big it gets, works the same way.

This path runs from counting to twenty all the way to numbers in the ten millions, one place-value step at a time. Start wherever it fits and work along the line.

The path

Seven steps, from counting to ten million

Each step is a short five-minute game. They grow the numbers one range at a time, hundreds, then thousands, then millions, reading, writing, comparing and rounding at each stage.

7 steps · Year 1 to Year 6

The foundation

Why start here?

Almost every later topic rests on place value: column arithmetic, decimals, rounding, money. A child who is shaky on what the digits mean will struggle no matter how neat their written method.

Five minutes a day along this path keeps the idea steady as the numbers grow. When these feel easy, the rest of the games by year are waiting.

Keep exploring

Other paths through the curriculum

Each path takes one strand of maths and lays its games out in the order they build, the same way this one does.

Follow the school year instead