Year 4 · Numbers to 10,000
Thousands, hundreds, tens and ones
Recognise the place value of each digit in a four-digit number (thousands, hundreds, tens, and ones)
Lesson overview
What you'll learn in this lesson
Recognise the place value of each digit in a four-digit number (thousands, hundreds, tens, and ones)
Key learning points
- • Every digit has a job
- • Partitioning
- • Comparing numbers
- • Ten times bigger, ten times smaller
This lesson at a glance
- 20 minutes
- 19 parts to scroll through
- 4 quick checks
- No marked quiz yet
- Gentle pace: short sittings with pauses
Words to know
Scroll down — the lesson carries on below
Watch & discover
Part 1 of 19
Watch first
Thousands, hundreds, tens and ones
Watch how ones build into tens, hundreds, thousands and beyond.
Do it for real
The practicals below use what the film shows, with a full method you can follow at home.
In a nutshell
Recognise the place value of each digit in a four-digit number (thousands, hundreds, tens, and ones)
What you already know
Part 2 of 19
Before we start
What you already know
You can read and write numbers up to 1,000 and know what the digits stand for.
Key words
Part 3 of 19
Key words
Words you'll need today
- digit
- One of the number symbols 0 to 9.
- place value
- What a digit is worth because of where it sits.
- partition
- Splitting a number into its parts, like 3,000 + 400 + 60 + 2.
Learning cycle
Part 4 of 19
Learning cycle 1 of 2
Part 1 — Reading the parts
A short piece of teaching, then a check to make sure it has landed.
Explore the idea
Part 5 of 19
Learn
Every digit has a job
In 3,462 the 3 sits in the thousands column, so it is worth 3,000. The 4 is in the hundreds, worth 400. The 6 is in the tens, worth 60. The 2 is in the ones, worth 2. Read it as three thousand, four hundred and sixty-two. The comma is just there to help your eyes: it goes after the thousands digit.
Explore the idea
Part 6 of 19
Learn
Partitioning
Partitioning means splitting a number into its parts: 3,462 = 3,000 + 400 + 60 + 2. Try it with 5,207. There are no tens, so we write 5,000 + 200 + 0 + 7. The zero is doing a real job — it holds the tens column open so the 2 stays in the hundreds.
Quick check
Part 7 of 19
Quick check
What is the 7 worth in 6,742?
Quick check
Part 8 of 19
Quick check
Partition 2,905.
Reset break
Part 9 of 19
Pause
That's sitting 1 of 2 done
Stretch, get a drink, look out of the window. There is no timer and nothing is counting down — your place is saved, so you can come back in five minutes or tomorrow.
Learning cycle
Part 10 of 19
Learning cycle 2 of 2
Part 2 — Using the parts
A short piece of teaching, then a check to make sure it has landed.
Explore the idea
Part 11 of 19
Learn
Comparing numbers
To compare 4,318 and 4,290, start at the biggest column and work right. Thousands: both 4. Hundreds: 3 beats 2, so 4,318 is bigger. You never need to look further once one column is different.
Explore the idea
Part 12 of 19
Learn
Ten times bigger, ten times smaller
Moving a digit one column to the left makes it ten times bigger: the 6 in 60 becomes 600. Moving it right makes it ten times smaller. This is why 10 × 462 = 4,620 — every digit shifts one place left and a zero fills the ones column.
Quick check
Part 13 of 19
Quick check
Which number is larger?
Quick check
Part 14 of 19
Quick check
What is 10 × 371?
Common mix-ups
Part 15 of 19
Common mix-ups
Things people often get wrong
- Thinking the 4 in 3,462 is 'just four' instead of 400.
- Leaving out a zero, so 5,207 gets written as 527.
- Comparing from the right-hand end instead of the biggest column.
Challenge round
Part 16 of 19
Game · Sort it
Which of these are true?
Drag each card into the right column. Tap a card first if dragging is fiddly.
True
Not true
Challenge round
Part 17 of 19
Game · Fill the gaps
Finish the sentences
Choose the word that belongs in each gap.
In 3,462 the 3 sits in the ____ column, so it is worth 3,000.
The 4 is in the ____, worth 400.
Partitioning means splitting a ____ into its parts: 3,462 = 3,000 + 400 + 60 + 2.
Mastery quiz
Part 18 of 19
No quiz for this one
This lesson has no marked quiz attached yet.
Lesson round-up
Part 19 of 19
Lesson round-up
Ready when you are
Quiz score
Not sat
Games
Not played
Points this lesson
0
Best run
0 in a row
Luna: 0 out of 4 on the practice checks. Only if you feel up to it — one more?
Ask LunaDo the work
Your written work for this lesson
This is the part you'd do in your book at school. Pick the pieces below, write here or on paper, and photograph anything you draw or work out.
The cost of a school trip
A school is planning a trip to a wildlife park. The coach costs £480 however many people go. Entry costs £9.50 for each pupil and each adult goes free. The school says every pupil must pay the same amount, and the trip must not lose money.
If 60 pupils go, the coach works out at £8 each, so the total for each pupil is £17.50. If only 40 pupils go, the coach works out at £12 each, so the price rises to £21.50. The teacher explains that the coach is a fixed cost and the entry is a cost per person — which is why the price per pupil changes when the number changes.
The school decides to charge £20 and to use anything left over for a second trip later in the year.
Written for Good Learning Co.
Reading questions
- Work out the total cost of the trip if 50 pupils go.
- Show why the price per pupil falls when more pupils go, using numbers.
- At £20 each, how many pupils must go before the trip makes money? Show your working.
Working out
Working outDo the practice questions on paper, showing every step — not just the answer. Mark them yourself and circle anything you got wrong.
10–15 questions
Worked example, explained
WritingCopy one question out and write underneath, in words, why each step works.
1 question, 4–5 sentences
Problem in words
Working outWrite your own real-life problem that uses today's method, then solve it.
1 problem + solution
Saved as you type.
Part 1 of 19 · Watch & discover