Looking Back: Numbers to 120, Tens and Ones, and Comparing

This is not just for paper. Place value is the reason ten digits can write any number that has ever been needed. This is worth learning because place value carries you into hundreds, thousands, and beyond. 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. You can count to one hundred twenty from any starting number. You understand that ten ones bundle into one ten, and that a digit’s place tells its value. You compare by looking at tens first and ones second, and you order lists from least to greatest.

You add and subtract tens in your head. Try these: what is ten more than 76, and which is greater, 84 or 48?

Try building the largest number you can with your rods and cubes, then saying what each digit means. If you can explain the digits, you have the idea that carries into hundreds and thousands next year. Little by little, this becomes something you just know.