What is place value?
Place value is the idea that the same digit means different amounts depending on where it sits in a number. In 374, the 3 stands for 300, the 7 stands for 70, and the 4 stands for 4 — even though they’re all single digits.
Why it matters
Place value is the backbone of every number operation in K-5: adding and subtracting with regrouping, multiplying multi-digit numbers, comparing numbers, and eventually understanding decimals. Kids who don’t get place value struggle with everything that comes after.
Worked example
What is the value of each digit in 4,062?
- 1
Identify each digit’s place starting from the right: ones, tens, hundreds, thousands.
The rightmost digit is always the ones place. Each place to the left is 10 times bigger.
- 2
The 2 is in the ones place: its value is 2 × 1 = 2.
- 3
The 6 is in the tens place: its value is 6 × 10 = 60.
- 4
The 0 is in the hundreds place: its value is 0 × 100 = 0. Even though it shows 0, it’s holding the spot so the other digits land in the right places.
A zero in the middle of a number isn’t "nothing" — it’s a placeholder that keeps the other digits where they belong.
- 5
The 4 is in the thousands place: its value is 4 × 1,000 = 4,000.
- 6
Add it up: 4,000 + 0 + 60 + 2 = 4,062. ✓
Answer
4 → 4,000; 0 → 0 (placeholder); 6 → 60; 2 → 2
Common mistakes
- •Treating 0 as "no place" instead of as a placeholder — writing 462 when they meant 4,062.
- •Reading numbers digit-by-digit ("four zero six two") instead of by place ("four thousand sixty-two").
- •Mixing up place names — calling the tens place "hundreds" because there are two digits.
- •In decimals: forgetting that the digits AFTER the decimal also follow place rules (tenths, hundredths, thousandths).
How Briveli teaches place value
Briveli covers place value across Kindergarten through Grade 4 — counting and tens-and-ones in K-1, hundreds and thousands in Grade 2-3, and decimal place value in Grade 4-5. Every operation that uses regrouping or carrying connects back here.
Practice Grade 2 math on Briveli