Mathematics
Beginner
40 mins
Teacher/Student led
Learning Goals
Learning Outcomes
Lesson Files
+80 XP
Teacher-led from the board. Pupils do not need a device, but can follow on one.
What you need:
IWB/Projector/Large Screen

What We Already Know: Place Value to Millions

Re-anchor your understanding of place value by reading, writing and building numbers up to the hundred-thousands. Explore how zeros hold columns open and how each column to the left is worth ten times the one on its right.

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    Place value blocks
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    1 - Getting Started ~4 mins

    In the 2025 to 2026 school year, children all over Ireland were in 5th class, the class you are in now. How many of them do you think there were? More than a thousand? More than ten thousand? More than a hundred thousand?

    Hands up with your best guess. Then we will find out the real number and see which place-value columns it needs.

    👇 Mark your steps as done as you complete them.

    +5 XP

    2 - Watch and Notice ~8 mins

    Watch the numbers being built on the mat, column by column, from the smallest up to the biggest. Every number today sits in the same six columns, just filling more or fewer of them. Keep your eye on the columns that stay empty and ask yourself what they are doing there.

    👇 Mark your steps as done as you complete them.

    +10 XP

    3 - Try It Together ~11 mins

    We will use the same six-column mat we just saw, with the columns HTh, TTh, Th, H, T, U. Today we work through these numbers together: 3,072, then 70,309, then 105,008, then 800,070.

    Watch out

    The zeros catch people out, so before each builder finishes, the whole class reads the number aloud together. Then whoever is at the board checks their build against what we said, and the rest of us agree or correct.

    Build the number on the mat

    +15 XP

    4 - Sketch the Columns in Your Copy ~2 mins

    COPYBOOK MOMENT

    Illustration for Sketch the Columns in Your CopyIn your maths copy, sketch the six place-value columns and label them HTh, TTh, Th, H, T, U. Then write each of these numbers into the columns, one under the other, and read each one aloud after you write it:

    • 3,072
    • 70,309
    • 105,008
    • 800,070
    +10 XP

    5 - Class Challenge ~8 mins

    Now we build a fresh set on the mat, each one a little trickier than the last: 8,004, then 60,030, then 200,109, then 700,005.

    Key point

    Before each one is built, we will ask: what is tricky about this one? Then a pupil builds it and we check together.

    Build the called number

    +15 XP

    6 - What Did We Notice? ~3 mins

    MATHS TALK

    Each column to the left is worth ten times the one before it. What do you think would happen if the rule was 'five times' instead of 'ten times'? How would our numbers change?

    +10 XP

    7 - What's Next ~3 mins

    What we did today

    • We went back over our place-value columns, from hundred-thousands all the way down to units.
    • We read, wrote and built numbers up to the hundred-thousands, watching how zeros hold a column open.
    • We reminded ourselves that each column to the left is worth ten times the one on its right.
    Coming up

    Today we split numbers up into columns: hundreds, tens and units. Next we take that same idea one step further. Instead of splitting one whole into tens and units, we will split one whole into ten equal parts and meet our first decimals: tenths.

    +5 XP
    Pupil practice
    Module 1 · Place Value and the Decimal Number System Number
    Lesson 1 · What We Already Know: Place Value to Millions
    Download Activity Book page (PDF)
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