Unlocking Place Value in year 5 with counters

This week in Year 5, our young mathematicians rolled up their sleeves and dove into the realm of millions using place value charts and colored counters.

The mission was simple on paper: look at a giant target number and build it accurately on a place value grid using counters.

However, simple tasks often reveal deep mathematical thinking—or illuminate sneaky misconceptions waiting to be unpacked.

One of the most revealing moments came when the class tackled the number 12,307.

Instinctively, several children headed straight for the "1,000" column and carefully counted out twelve individual thousand counters. Watching their hands work, you could see the literal translation happening in their heads: I need 12 thousands, so I pick up 12 thousands.

Then came the inevitable pause.

“Wait... this column is getting really full.” “Can we put 12 in one column?”

The class realised that ten of those 1000 counters didn't need to crowd the thousands column—they could be traded in for a single, 10,000 counter. 

By the end of the lesson children were confidently building numbers all the way up to 1,000,000, making trades across columns, and talking through their reasoning with their partners.

Hats off to Year 5 for brilliant mathematical thinking, great problem-solving, and embracing those golden lightbulb moments!