Number System
Lessons in this chapter
About Number System
Number System adds the thousands place, and with it the idea that place value is a repeating structure rather than a list of columns to memorize.
Read and Write 4-Digit Numbers and Write 4 Digit Numbers in Sequence extend the range. The new piece is the comma or space that groups digits in threes, which exists to make long numbers readable and which kids need to use rather than just see.
Understand Place Value of 4 Digit Numbers is the core lesson. In 3,482 the 3 is worth three thousand, and seeing that each column is ten times the one to its right is the generalisation that makes every further column predictable.
Compare and Order 4 Digit Numbers and Round Numbers up to 4-Digits to Nearest Tens and Hundreds apply it. Comparing still goes left to right from the largest place, and rounding still looks at the digit to the right of the target place.
Skip Count Numbers up to 4 digits by 10, 100, and 1000 closes the chapter and is quietly the best place value exercise in it, because counting by 1000 changes exactly one digit and leaves the rest untouched.
Understand Place Value of 4 Digit Numbers, Compare and Order 4 Digit Numbers and Round Numbers up to 4-Digits to Nearest Tens and Hundreds each open as a worksheet in the page, scored as your child works. These are the place value worksheets the rest of 3rd grade leans on, since every written method assumes the columns are understood. Six lessons, all free.
Frequently asked questions
Reading and writing 4-digit numbers, writing them in sequence, place value across four columns, comparing and ordering them, rounding to the nearest ten and hundred, and skip counting by 10, 100 and 1000. It sits in Number and Operations in Base Ten (3.NBT); that domain works within 1000 at this grade, so the 4-digit range here is a step past it.
How to read, write and sequence them, identify each digit's place value, compare and order them, round to the nearest ten and hundred, and skip count by 10, 100 and 1000.
To make long numbers readable. 3482 and 3,482 are the same number, but the comma shows at a glance where the thousands start.
Each column is worth ten times the one to its right: ones, tens, hundreds, thousands. Once a child sees that, every new column is predictable rather than something extra to learn.
Start at the largest place and work right. Compare thousands first, and only move to hundreds if the thousands match.
Look at the tens digit, which is 8. Since it is 5 or more, round up, giving 3,500.