Expanded Form Teaching Resources
Teach students about expanded form and how to write numbers this way with printable worksheets, activities, and more teacher-created resources made for Australian teachers.
Get students thinking about how large numbers can be broken down into individual place values and better understand their value with resources aligned with the Australian curriculum — including version 9.0!
New to teaching this section of the maths curriculum, or just looking for some tips on engaging your students? Read on for a primer from our teacher team, including an explanation of what expanded form is, how it helps kids break down multi-digit whole numbers and how it relates to place value.
What Is Expanded Form? A Kid-Friendly Definition
Let's start with a student-friendly way to introduce expanded form to your maths class! Here's a definition our maths teachers use in the classroom:
Expanded form is a way of representing a number as the sum of its place values by breaking the number down into its individual parts. Writing a number in this form shows the value of each digit in the number.
Expanded Form Examples — How to Write Numbers in Expanded Form
A definition is helpful, but how do you make this concept more concrete for your young learners and help them understand how to write numbers in this format themselves? Expanded form examples, of course!
Let's take the number 345. When we break it down, this number has:
- A 3 in the hundreds place
- A 4 in the tens place
- A 5 in the ones place
To write the number 345 in expanded form, we would create an addition problem:
300 + 40 + 5
If you add these three numbers back together, you will end up with 345!
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Expanded Notation Dominoes (3-Digit Numbers)
Use this set of dominoes when learning how to match 3-digit numbers written in standard form and expanded form.
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Reading and Writing Double Digit Numbers Interactive Activity
Get students practising their knowledge of converting standard form numbers to expanded form with this engaging interactive activity.
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Expanded Form Interactive Task Cards
Explore expanding numbers with your students using these interactive task cards, reviewing numbers in expanded form and place value charts.
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Expanded Form Task Cards
Help your students explore expanding numbers up to 6-digits with this set of task cards.
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Interactive MAB Blocks Lab
Explore an interactive MAB block manipulator tool made for your primary classroom! Teach place value, help students visualise problems and more!
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Partitioning and Expanding 2-Digit Numbers
A 60 minute lesson in which students will understand how 2-digit numbers can be partitioned.
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Expanding Numbers Beyond 10 000
A 60 minute lesson in which students will investigate how place value can be used to expand numbers.
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Expanding Numbers to 10 000
A 60 minute lesson in which students will investigate how place value can be used to expand numbers.