Number and place value are foundational concepts for all mathematics learning. This means we need to address how to teach place value as early as possible so that pupils can secure their knowledge of the concept.
It is the position of a number that tells what value it is assigned. Thousands, hundreds, ones? How much do you have on hand? Be it toffees or currencies.
For example, in the number 246, the digit 4 indicates there are four tens. Despite it being simple, place value is a bit challenging concept for a young child to grasp. Children need a lot of hands on practice and discussions to understand place value as the learning targets get higher and the numbers get bigger. Anything is easy when they learn through play way method. They love place value blocks. They are a great concrete model for helping children to understand the relationship between ones, tens and hundreds. They have to count the blocks and set them side by side to see that ten ones is the same as one ten or that one tens is equal to ten ones. We also played a game with play money where they need to need set the right number of hundreds, tens and ones for the given number. They had real fun with play money and the learning happened unknowingly!
These are steps to connect math in real life.
