Reading and Writing the Numerals from 1 to 120

This is not just for paper. House numbers, page numbers, and bus routes all require reading numerals correctly the first time. This is worth learning because writing a number wrong sends the whole answer somewhere else. Watch for it today, and when you spot it, tell someone what you noticed and how you knew. Ask yourself where else the same idea might be hiding, then go and look.

You are going to like this one. Saying a number and writing it are two different skills. Forty two is written 42, with the four in front because it stands for four tens. Watch out for numbers like 103, where a zero holds the tens place.

If you write 13 for one hundred three, the number is completely wrong. Read each numeral aloud as you write it, and check that what you wrote says what you meant.

Watch out for numbers with zero in them. One hundred ten is written 110, not 10010. Say the number slowly and think about how many hundreds, tens, and ones it has. Zero is holding a place, quietly doing an important job. Little by little, this becomes something you just know.