The idea in brief. A digit gets its value from its place; ten of one place rename as one of the next place. Keep a zero for each empty place. A digit and its value are different. In the lesson (Place value and number words). In Primary 2, you counted in hundreds up to one thousand. Ten hundreds make one thousand. Today, we use a place-value chart to read and write numbers up to ten thousand. Each digit gets its value from its place, and a zero shows an empty place. In the lesson (More than nine in a place). In the last lesson, we wrote one digit for each place on a place-value chart. Here are ten discs of ten. Ten tens make one hundred. Today, we rename ten discs in one place as one disc in the next place. When a place has ten or more discs, rename ten of them as one disc of the next place.
Lesson videos, with the working
Lesson 1
Place value and number words
3 min 48 s
The film teaches 3 questions in turn. Each question shows first; its working is written as the film explains it.
How do P3 children answer place value and number words questions?
This page opens the Primary 3 numbers chapter.
What your child learns here
This page opens the Primary 3 numbers chapter. Children read, write and build numbers up to 10 000 using thousands, hundreds, tens and ones, following the MOE outcomes on counting in thousands, place values and number words.
Count on and back in hundreds and in thousands, and see that 10 hundreds make 1 thousand.
Show a 4-digit number with number discs or on a place-value chart, and name the value of each digit: in 6352, the 3 stands for 300.
Read and write numbers up to 10 000 in numerals and in words, keeping a 0 for any empty place.
Rename 10 of one place as 1 of the next place, for example 14 hundreds as 1 thousand and 4 hundreds.
Does the answer make sense?
When the answer is a numeral below ten thousand, it has at most four digits, and a 0 must hold any empty place, as in six thousand and seventy-nine. Given 10 or more of one place, such as 17 hundreds, your child should see one more passed to the place on its left.
How to practise these questions
The Basic questions practise reading and writing 4-digit numbers and saying what each digit is worth. The Intermediate questions add expanded forms with a missing part, counting on in thousands, and numbers with more than nine hundreds or ones that must be regrouped. If a place value question stalls, play its solution film together, then try it again later from Revision. Multiple-choice Basic questions ask which number has a given number of thousands, hundreds, tens and ones, or in which number a digit stands for a given value; these have written working and no film.
Questions parents ask
Is place value up to 10 000 in the Primary 3 syllabus? Yes. The MOE Primary 3 syllabus lists counting in hundreds and thousands, place values up to thousands, and reading and writing numbers in numerals and in words under Numbers up to 10 000. This page covers those three outcomes together.
How should my P3 child write a number in words? The worked examples on this page write numbers such as five thousand, three hundred and nine, with a comma after the thousands and and before the last part. If the school uses a slightly different style, follow the teacher's.
What are number discs, and do I need them at home? Number discs are counters marked 1000, 100, 10 and 1 that show how many of each place a number has. The lesson on this page uses them on a place-value chart. At home, paper squares labelled with a pen or bundled sticks do the same job.
