Place value worksheets: hundreds, tens and ones

Free place value worksheets for grades 1–3

Place value is the idea that the same digit means different things depending on where it stands. The 4 in 407 is worth four hundred, the 4 in 47 is worth forty, and the 7 in 47 is worth seven. Children who really understand this add and subtract with far fewer mistakes, because regrouping stops being a trick and starts making sense. On this page you can print free place value worksheets with hundreds, tens and ones: read base-ten blocks, fill in a place value chart, write numbers in expanded form and build numbers back up. Pick two-digit or three-digit numbers, decide how zeros appear, and print on A4 or US Letter with no sign-up.

Every set comes with one answer key that matches the children's sheets problem by problem, so checking takes a minute instead of a whole evening.

Four kinds of problems

• Read the base-ten blocks. The sheet shows squares, strips and single cells. The child counts each group and writes the number.
• Fill in a place value chart. The number is given and the child writes its digits under Hundreds, Tens and Ones. Two-digit numbers get only Tens and Ones.
• Write in expanded form. The child breaks a number into parts: 382 = 300 + 80 + 2.
• Build the number. The reverse: 300 + 80 + 2 = 382. Children see that the parts add up to the same number they started with.

Choose “A bit of everything” to get all four kinds on one sheet, evenly mixed and in a new order, or pick a single kind for focused practice. A mixed sheet is a good quick check, while a single kind works better while a skill is still new.

How the base-ten blocks are drawn

The drawings follow the same logic as classroom base-ten blocks. A one is a single cell, a ten is a strip of ten cells and a hundred is a square of ten by ten cells. All the drawings use the same cell size, so a child can actually see that ten cells line up to the length of a strip and that ten strips would cover a square. The size does not change between A4 and Letter either.

If you own a real set of blocks, build the number first and then find it on the sheet. If you do not, the drawing does the job: children can touch each strip with a pencil and count aloud, “ten, twenty, thirty”. Counting strips by tens and squares by hundreds is exactly the habit you want to build.

Why zeros deserve their own setting

Zeros cause most place value mistakes. A child hears “four hundred seven” and writes 47, or 4007. The zero in 407 holds the tens place open: take it away and the number shrinks to 47. That is why you can choose how zeros appear:

• May appear — ordinary mixed numbers, where a zero turns up now and then.
• In every number — numbers such as 305, 640 or 90. Use this when zeros are the very thing your child trips over.
• No zeros — every digit is 1–9. Handy for a first introduction, when one new idea is enough.

On these sheets a zero keeps its place in expanded form as well: 407 = 400 + 0 + 7. Many textbooks later drop the zero and write 400 + 7, and both are correct. Keeping it at the start helps children notice that the tens place exists even when it is empty. In the block problems an empty group is shown with a dash, so it is a visible “none” rather than a blank spot.

Two-digit or three-digit numbers

Start with numbers from 10 to 99. A first grader only has to think about tens and ones, and the jump from “ten ones” to “one ten” is the most important step in the whole topic. Once that feels easy, move on to numbers from 100 to 999 and add the hundreds place. These sheets stop at 999 on purpose: there are no thousands, no decimals and no regrouping, so the page stays on one clear idea.

A simple order for teaching place value

1. Begin with “Read the base-ten blocks”, two-digit numbers, no zeros, four problems.
2. Move on to the place value chart with the same numbers, so the digits get a home.
3. Try expanded form and then “Build the number”, which show the same idea in both directions.
4. Switch to “In every number” for zeros, still with two digits: 40, 70, 90.
5. Repeat the steps with three-digit numbers, and finish with a mixed sheet.

There is no need to hurry through this. A week on each step is fine for many children, and short daily practice works better than one long session.

Sheets and copies

Choose 4 or 6 problems per sheet. Four give more room and suit younger children; six make a fuller practice page. For a small group, set the number of children from 1 to 6: everyone gets an identical copy of the same problems, marked with its copy number, and one answer key goes at the end of the stack. Identical copies make it easy to go over the sheet together. Press “New problems” whenever you want a different set. Changing the number of copies, the caption or the reminder keeps the problems you already have.

You can also add your own caption of up to 60 characters, such as a child's name, a lesson title or “Counting by tens”. It appears under the title on every sheet.

The reminder line and black-and-white printing

At the top of each sheet there is an optional reminder: 10 ones = 1 ten, 10 tens = 1 hundred. Keep it while the topic is new and switch it off when you want to see what a child remembers. Black-and-white mode removes the colored fill from the blocks, which saves ink, and children can color the groups themselves: one color for hundreds, another for tens, a third for ones.

How to check the answers

The answer key repeats each problem exactly as it appears on the child's sheet, in the same order, with the blanks filled in. When something is wrong, try to find out why before correcting it. A child who wrote 47 for 407 skipped the zero. One who wrote 74 for 47 may have swapped the places. One who wrote 300 + 8 + 2 for 382 knows the digits but not what they are worth. Each of these needs a different next step, usually going back to blocks or to the chart for a few minutes.

More number practice

Place value connects to almost everything in early math. Try the hundreds chart to see patterns of tens, number line worksheets to place numbers in order and greater than and less than worksheets, where comparing starts from the largest place. Number bonds practice splitting numbers into parts, and addition and subtraction worksheets put it all to use. Counting money is a nice real-life link too, since dimes and pennies behave a lot like tens and ones.

Frequently asked questions

Choose the kind of problems and the numbers, then print your place value worksheets.