Place value and number senseGrades 2–5
Place value worksheets with answer key
Generate place value practice with numbers from 2 to 10 digits. Ask for the value of a digit, the name of its place, expanded form, standard form, or all four mixed, then print it with an answer key.
- Fresh problems every time
- Answer key on its own page
- Print or PDF, Letter or A4
- Free, no sign-up
On this page
Why place value deserves its own practice
Every written number is a short code. In 4,832 the 8 does not mean eight; it means eight hundreds, because of where it sits. A child who has this firmly will find regrouping, rounding, comparing numbers and decimals far easier later. A child who does not will keep memorizing procedures that feel unrelated.
This generator covers the whole journey. Young students start with two-digit numbers (tens and ones), third and fourth graders work with thousands and ten thousands, and fifth graders can reach millions and billions. Each number is random, with no leading zero, so the digits are never the same sheet to sheet.
Choosing the question type
The Question type menu has five choices.
- Value of a digit prints a line like "In 47,305, the 7 is worth ___."
- Name the place asks where the digit lives: "the 7 is in the ___ place."
- Write in expanded form asks the student to break a whole number into a sum of its parts.
- Expanded to standard form goes the opposite way, from the sum back to the number.
- Mixed rotates all four.
Digits in each number accepts any value from 2 to 10. Numbers of 7 to 9 digits head the page "Place Value to the Millions," and 10 digits "Place Value to the Billions." Numbers are printed with commas, and Number of problems runs from 6 to 30. Value and place questions point at a digit that appears only once in the number, so "the 7" is never ambiguous.
Worked example: 47,305
This is a five-digit number, so the places from the left are ten thousands, thousands, hundreds, tens and ones.
- Value of the 7. The 7 is in the second position, the thousands place. Seven thousands is 7,000.
- Place of the 4. The 4 is in the first position, so it is in the ten thousands place, worth 40,000.
- Expanded form. Write each non-zero digit with its value: 40,000 + 7,000 + 300 + 5.
- The zero. The tens digit is 0, so it contributes nothing and does not appear in the expanded form.
- Back to standard form. Add the parts: 40,000 + 7,000 = 47,000; plus 300 is 47,300; plus 5 is 47,305.
The instruction line on the sheet reminds students that expanded form adds the value of every non-zero digit, which is why the zero is skipped.
What to check on the answer key
- Digit versus value. A student who writes 7 when asked for the value of the 7 has named the digit. The key shows 7,000.
- Misplaced zeros. In 40,000 + 7,000 + 300 + 5, the number of zeros in each term should match the place. A missing zero produces a number that is ten times too small.
- Writing a zero term. Some students add "+ 0" for the empty tens place. This is not wrong mathematically, but the key leaves it out, so you may want to say it is optional.
- Off-by-one place names. Confusing hundreds with hundred thousands is common once the numbers reach six digits. Reading the number aloud in groups of three digits, with commas as pauses, helps.
Using the sheet well
Keep it short. Twelve to sixteen questions of a single type is enough for one session. Mixed sheets work best as a weekly review rather than a first introduction.
For the next step, rounding worksheets use the same place names to decide how a number changes. If a student needs support with the smallest numbers, the counting worksheets come before this page. The number patterns worksheets extend the idea by asking students to notice how digits change as numbers grow.