2.NBT.1: Understanding Place Value

I can understand that the three digits of a three-digit number represent amounts of hundreds, tens, and ones.

What Your Child Needs to Know

This standard focuses on helping your child understand place value in three-digit numbers (100-999). Students will learn that each digit in a three-digit number represents a specific value based on its position: the hundreds place, the tens place, and the ones place.

This standard builds on previous place value understanding from 1st grade and prepares your child for working with larger numbers in later grades. Mastering place value is essential for understanding our number system and is the foundation for multi-digit addition, subtraction, and other operations.

Real World Practice

Visual models and hands-on activities

Visual Models

1. Base-Ten Blocks

Use physical or drawn base-ten blocks where flat squares represent hundreds, sticks represent tens, and small cubes represent ones to show the value of three-digit numbers.

2. Place Value Chart

Create a chart with columns labeled "Hundreds," "Tens," and "Ones" where your child can place digits or objects to represent numbers.

3. Expanded Form Cards

Write a three-digit number and show how it breaks down (e.g., 352 = 300 + 50 + 2) using separate cards for each part.

4. Number Disks

Use different colored disks or coins to represent hundreds, tens, and ones placed on a place value mat.

Everyday Activities

1. House Number Hunt

Look for three-digit numbers in your neighborhood (house numbers, street signs) and have your child identify the value of each digit.

2. Money Sorting

Use dollar bills, dimes, and pennies to represent hundreds, tens, and ones. Have your child show different amounts using this money.

3. Grocery Store Math

Look at price tags at the store and discuss the value of each digit in the prices (ignoring decimal points at first).

4. Number Building Game

Roll three dice and have your child create the largest or smallest possible three-digit number, explaining the value of each digit.

Quick Checks

Strategies and quick activities

Strategies When Your Child Struggles

1. Use Concrete Objects First

Start with physical objects (blocks, beans, straws bundled in groups of 10) before moving to drawings or numbers.

2. Practice Place Value Language

Consistently use terms like "hundreds place," "tens place," and "ones place" when discussing numbers.

3. Connect to Counting

Practice counting by 100s, 10s, and 1s to reinforce the value of each place.

4. Use Expanded Form

Break numbers into expanded form (e.g., 352 = 300 + 50 + 2) to highlight the value of each digit.

5. Create Visual Anchors

Post a place value chart in your home as a reference tool for your child.

5-Minute Practice Activities

Activity 1: Place Value Puzzles

Give your child a three-digit number and ask them to identify the value of each digit (e.g., in 427, the 4 is worth 400, the 2 is worth 20, and the 7 is worth 7).

Activity 2: Number Detective

Give clues about a mystery number: "I'm thinking of a number with 5 hundreds, 3 tens, and 8 ones. What number am I thinking of?"

Activity 3: Digit Swap

Start with a number like 352 and ask: "What happens if we swap the tens and ones digits? The hundreds and tens digits?"

Activity 4: Build-a-Number

Call out "3 hundreds, 7 tens, 2 ones" and have your child write the number (372). Vary the order of the clues to increase difficulty.

Check Progress

Track improvement

By the middle of the year, your child should:

  • Understand that a three-digit number represents hundreds, tens, and ones
  • Identify the value of each digit in a three-digit number
  • Read and write numbers to 500 using numerals and words
  • Represent three-digit numbers using concrete models or drawings

By the end of the year, your child should:

  • Fluently identify the value of each digit in any three-digit number
  • Read and write numbers to 1000 using numerals and words
  • Represent three-digit numbers in multiple ways (standard form, expanded form, word form)
  • Explain how the value of a digit changes based on its position

Mastery Signs

Your child understands this concept when they can:

  • Correctly identify the value of each digit in three-digit numbers
  • Explain that the same digit has different values depending on its place
  • Decompose three-digit numbers into hundreds, tens, and ones
  • Use place value understanding to compare three-digit numbers
  • Apply place value concepts when adding and subtracting

Differentiation

Support for all learning levels

Below Grade Level

Practice problems focusing on two-digit place value (tens and ones) before moving to three-digit numbers.

Download Practice Worksheet

At Grade Level

Standard practice with identifying place value in three-digit numbers and representing numbers in different forms.

Download Grade Level Worksheet

Above Grade Level

Advanced practice with place value concepts for four-digit numbers and applying place value to solve more complex problems.

Download Challenge Worksheet