Printable place value chart
A place value chart names each place in a number, ones, tens, hundreds, and groups them into periods, ones, thousands, millions. The empty rows under the headings are for writing numbers digit by digit so that each digit sits in its place.
Free printable PDF, 2nd grade to 5th grade.
One page, black and white, prints the same every time.
What is on the sheet
The table below is the sheet as it prints with these options: To millions, 8.
| Millions | Thousands | Ones | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hundreds | Tens | Ones | Hundreds | Tens | Ones | Hundreds | Tens | Ones |
Reading the chart
The top row names the periods: ones, thousands, millions, and billions on the largest chart. Every period has the same three places under it, hundreds, tens and ones, which is the whole trick of the number system: 4,286,317 is "four million, two hundred eighty-six thousand, three hundred seventeen" because each group of three digits is read the same way and then given its period's name.
The comma in a written number falls exactly on the line between two periods on the chart. Children who write numbers into the chart first tend to place their commas correctly afterwards.
Which chart for which grade
Second grade works to the thousands place and needs only the ones period plus one column. Third and 4th grade read and write numbers to the millions, so that is the default. Fifth grade extends to billions in some curricula and to decimals in all of them; the decimals version of this chart adds a decimal point and the tenths, hundredths and thousandths places to the right.
Choose more writing rows for a lesson where the child writes a list of numbers, and fewer for a reference copy that goes in a folder.
Exercises the chart makes easy
Say a number and have the child write it into the chart one digit per cell. Write a number with a zero in the middle and ask why the zero is there. Give a digit and a place, "a 7 in the ten thousands place", and ask for a number that fits. Write two numbers into two rows and compare them place by place from the left, which is how comparing large numbers is taught. Round to a place by circling its column.
Common questions
- Why are there no numbers in the chart?
- A place value chart is a frame, not a table of values. The rows are empty so that the child writes numbers into it; the headings are what make it a reference.
- Is there a version with decimals?
- Yes, the place value chart with decimals adds the decimal point and three places to the right, for 4th and 5th grade.