Place Value to 1,000: the Hundreds Column

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1 Getting Started
2 Watch and Notice
3 Try It Together
4 Sketch the Columns in Your Copy
5 Class Challenge
6 What Did We Notice?
7 What's Next
Pupil practice

1 - Getting Started ~4 mins

Illustration for Getting Started Hands up: how many fingers do you think there are in our whole class, if everyone holds up all ten? Could that number pass one hundred?

Now look at these three numbers. What is the same and what is different about them? 234, 305, 470.

Teacher Notes

Take three hands-up answers for the finger question, not open call-outs. Give five seconds of quiet think-time before any hands go up.

Then put the three numbers on the board and ask what's the same, what's different — you are listening for pupils noticing they all have three digits, and that two of them have a zero. Don't resolve the zero yet; that is the lesson.

👇 Mark your steps as done as you complete them.

+5 XP

2 - Watch and Notice ~9 mins

The interactive shows numbers made from hundred-flats, ten-rods and units in the H, T and U columns. Look at each number and read the columns in turn. Keep an eye on any column that has nothing in it.

Teacher Notes

100: ten ten-rods trade for one hundred-flat. Ten tens make one hundred, like ten units made one ten.

234: two hundred-flats, three ten-rods, four units. Read left to right: two hundred, thirty, four.

305: three flats, empty tens, five units. Pause on the zero in the tens. Ask what is holding that empty space before revealing.

470: four flats, seven rods, empty units. Zero has moved to the units now. Ask which column is empty.

The zero is the make-or-break idea. Stress the column does not disappear, it holds nothing. Don't move on until pupils can say what the zero is doing in 305 and 470.

👇 Mark your steps as done as you complete them.

+10 XP

3 - Try It Together ~11 mins

Let's build some numbers together. I'll call out a number, one of you builds it on our place-value mat in the hundreds, tens and units columns, and then we'll all read it back and check the columns are right. While one of you is at the board, the rest of us watch the mat and get ready to read the number aloud together.

Build the number

Teacher Notes

This round is for talking it through together — one pupil builds at the board while the rest of the class watches the mat and reads the answer back aloud.

Call a number under 1,000, have one pupil build it on the mat, then ask the class to read it back and confirm. Rotate four pupils through. Deliberately include one number with a zero in the tens (e.g. 206) and one with a zero in the units (e.g. 340) so the class keeps practising the place-holder idea. Revoice a strong answer: so the zero keeps the tens column empty, and that keeps the 2 in the hundreds.

+15 XP

4 - Sketch the Columns in Your Copy ~2 mins

COPYBOOK MOMENT

Illustration for Sketch the Columns in Your Copy In your maths copy, sketch the three place-value columns and label them H, T and U. Then write each of these numbers into the columns, one under the other. Read each number aloud after you write it.

Teacher Notes

Walk the room glancing at column labels and alignment — no marking, this is whole-class copybook practice. Watch that pupils put the zero in 308 and 450 in the right column rather than leaving a gap or dropping it.

+10 XP

5 - Class Challenge ~7 mins

Now let's build the very numbers you just wrote in your copy and check them on the board: 162, then 308, then 450, then 909. Before a pupil builds each one at the board, the whole class predicts the columns out loud. Then the pupil builds it and presses Check, and we all read it aloud. The zeros catch people out, so listen carefully for where each zero sits.

Build the called number

Teacher Notes

These are the practice questions — one pupil builds at the board, presses Check, and the class confirms before moving on. These are the same numbers pupils have just written in their copies, so building them here is a check of that written work; keep the board work brisk rather than over-explaining.

For each target ask the class to predict the columns first, then a pupil builds and presses Check. The callout for this bank: where does the zero sit? 162 has no zero — three different digits; 308 has the zero in the tens; 450 has the zero in the units; 909 has the zero in the tens with the nine repeated. Confirm the ✓ each time with a quick yes — that's it.

+15 XP

6 - What Did We Notice? ~3 mins

MATHS TALK

One pupil says the value of a number is decided by its biggest digit. Another says it is decided by where the digit sits. Who is right, and how would you settle it?

Look at these two numbers. They use the very same digits, 3, 0 and 5. Are they the same number?

305

350

Teacher Notes

Listen for pupils naming position as the decider, not the size of the digit. Point to 305 and 350 side by side: same digits, very different numbers. Revoice a strong answer: so the 3 is worth three hundred in 305 because it sits in the hundreds column — the column does the deciding.

+10 XP

7 - What's Next ~3 mins

What we learned

Ten tens make one hundred, so a new hundreds column opens on the left.
A digit's value comes from the column it sits in, not the digit alone.
A zero keeps a column empty but in place, so the other digits stay where they belong.

Coming up

Coming up next

Next we look at the two ways of writing every three-digit number — in digits and in words — and how the two must always match.

Teacher Notes

Quick recap on the three points. The pupil activity-book page on this lesson gives them the pencil-and-paper practice on building and reading three-digit numbers with zeros.

+5 XP

Pupil practice

Module 1 · Place Value: Whole Numbers to 1,000 and Rounding Number

Lesson 2 · Place Value to 1,000: the Hundreds Column

Download Activity Book page (PDF)

End of lesson

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This lesson is copyright of Coding Ireland 2017 - 2025. Unauthorised use, copying or distribution is not allowed.

Teacher Class Feed

1 - Getting Started ~4 mins

2 - Watch and Notice ~9 mins

3 - Try It Together ~11 mins

Build the number

4 - Sketch the Columns in Your Copy ~2 mins

5 - Class Challenge ~7 mins

Build the called number

6 - What Did We Notice? ~3 mins

305

350

7 - What's Next ~3 mins

What we learned

Coming up

Unlock the full learning experience

XP