What Do You Mean Base 10?

Well our entire place value system is based on 10. In the visual below it shows how it would take 10 ones to make 1 ten. It would then take 10 tens to make 1 hundred, and 10 hundreds to make 1 thousand. This pattern continues indefinitely.

Now that we have seen the model that represents this relationship between place values it’s time to put it to work! Have you ever heard anyone say “that’s going to cost 11 hundred dollars?” (it could be 14 hundred or 18 hundred… you know what I mean.) They are referring to the amount of hundreds. In the example of 11 hundred, it could also be read as 1 thousand 1 hundred.

So which way is right?

The answer is they are both right. 11 hundred is the same as 1 thousand 1 hundred. We want students to be able to use these interchangeable.

4th graders will be representing numbers through the millions as shown with this place value chart below.

They will be using many of the strategies they have learned in previous grade levels about the relationship between place values. In the example below we have created a number.

If were to ask for the value of the 4 in 4,532 a common mistake would be the answer 4. Even though 4 is the digit we are looking for the value, and that is determined by the digit’s place. Below you will see an example.