Master Place Value through Partitioning Numbers into Places

This engaging, interactive activity has been designed and created by a teacher to help students practice their knowledge of expanding 3-digit numbers to 6-digit numbers. Expanding numbers is a crucial element to being place value aware. 

The interactive activities included are:

• Sorting numbers into expanded form or standard form.
• Correctly identifying the value of an underlined digit.
• Expanding numbers using place value charts.
• Dragging and dropping the expanded form to the word form of numbers
• Dragging and dropping the correct standard number to its expanded form.
• Dragging and dropping boxes to show three different numbers in expanded form.
• Typing the expanded form beside five different numbers.

Expanded Form vs Partitioning Numbers

While expanded form and partitioning numbers share similarities in that they both involve breaking down a number into its constituent parts, they are not precisely the same concept. Here are the differences:

Expanded Form

Expanded form is a specific representation of a number that decomposes into a sum of its place value components. For example,  4,589 is expanded into 4,000 + 500 + 80 + 9. Each part corresponds to a specific place value – thousands, hundreds, tens, and ones.

Partitioning Numbers

Partitioning numbers is a general concept that involves breaking down a number into parts or components, including various methods like palace value, equal parts, prime factors, odd and even components, and more. 

Therefore, while expanded form is one way to partition a number by representing it as a sum of its place value components, partitioning numbers is a broader concept. 

Download and Expand Today!

This resource is available to download in Google Slides format. Use this in edit mode to ensure students can engage with the interactive elements. 

This resource was created by Lindsey Phillips, a teacher in Michigan and a Teach Starter collaborator.

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