Skip to content
Paper Kit

Maths

Place Value Worksheets

Free printable place value practice with proper base ten blocks. Count blocks and write the number, draw the blocks yourself, fill in a place value chart, or write numbers in expanded form. Tens, hundreds or thousands, with answer keys.

Base ten blocksPlace value chartExpanded formAnswer key
Loading generator…

Four steps

How to make a place value worksheet

  1. 1

    Start by counting blocks

    Reading a model is easier than producing one.

  2. 2

    Move to the chart

    Removes the blocks but keeps the columns.

  3. 3

    Then expanded form

    Removes the columns too.

  4. 4

    Finally draw blocks

    The hardest direction, because nothing is given.

The idea that nothing on the page shows you

Every other early maths idea has something visible behind it. Five is more than three and looks it. But nothing about the 3 in 342 looks like three hundred, and nothing about the 4 looks like forty. Place value is pure position, and a child who has not grasped it is memorising procedures for column arithmetic that cannot possibly make sense.

Base ten blocks fix this by making the sizes real. A flat genuinely is a hundred times a unit, and it is the same shape and material, so the relationship is a fact about the objects rather than a claim about symbols.

Countable, not labelled

The blocks here keep every internal grid line. That is a deliberate choice: a rectangle with “100” printed on it teaches nothing, because the child has no way to check it. A ten-by-ten grid can be counted, and counting one once is what makes every later use of it trustworthy.

The order that works

StepWhat it removes
Count the blocksNothing. The model is fully present.
Place value chartThe blocks, but the columns still separate the digits.
Expanded formThe columns. Only the written number remains.
Draw the blocksEverything. The child produces the model from the number.

Difficulty at any step is a signal to go back one, not to repeat the same step harder.

Why it matters later

Carrying and borrowing are place value in action. A child who writes 342 confidently as 300 + 40 + 2 has the structure needed to understand why a ten is exchanged for ten ones, rather than following a rule about crossing out digits. Nearly every persistent column arithmetic error traces back to this.

Related printables

Number bonds cover the within-ten fluency that column arithmetic assumes, the math worksheet generator drills the arithmetic itself, and fractions extend place value below one.

Answers

Frequently asked questions

The idea that a digit’s position decides how much it is worth. The 3 in 342 means three hundred, not three. It is the single idea the whole number system rests on, and it is almost invisible in written numbers, because nothing about the shape of a 3 tells you which one it is. That is exactly why a physical model is needed.

So they can be counted. A hundred-flat drawn as a plain rectangle labelled "100" asks a child to take your word for it. A flat drawn as ten rows of ten can be counted, and once a child has counted one they understand why it is worth a hundred rather than simply being told. Every block on these sheets keeps its grid lines for that reason.

It makes place value explicit. Writing 342 as 300 + 40 + 2 turns the invisible positional meaning into something on the page, which is why it is the step between counting blocks and doing column arithmetic. Children who can write expanded form confidently tend to make far fewer carrying and borrowing errors later.

Count blocks first, because reading a model is easier than producing one. Then the place value chart, which strips the blocks away but keeps the columns. Then expanded form, which removes the columns too. Then drawing blocks from a number, which is the hardest because nothing is given. Each step removes one piece of support.

They help a great deal if you have them, because weight and handling do something a drawing cannot. But printed blocks work, and they have one advantage: a child can draw them, which is not possible with plastic. Use both if you can, and use the printed sheets for the recording that physical blocks cannot capture.

Keep going

All 73 tools →
Number Bonds WorksheetsnewBonds to 20 & comparing numbersMath Worksheet Generatornew+ − × ÷ drills with answer keysFractions WorksheetsnewBars, circles & fraction wallNumber Tracing Worksheetsnew0-20, ten frames & sequences

More number work

Number bonds and the math worksheet generator cover the arithmetic that place value makes possible.

All toolsHome