Place Value
In Year 5, children stretch place value all the way to a million. They read and write big numbers in figures and words, compare and order them, and say what each digit is worth, including the tricky ones with a zero sitting in the middle. They also round large numbers to the nearest 10, 100, 1,000, 10,000 and 100,000, count in powers of ten, work with negative numbers in real situations, and read Roman numerals up to 1000.
Practise Place Value
Have a guess, even if you're not sure. Get one wrong and we'll show you why, so every miss is a chance to learn.
Timed practice
The same practice, just with a gentle clock. Pick a length and see how many you can answer.
Good to know
Number line to a million
A number line from 0 to 1000000 with a signpost every 200000, so you can see roughly where a big number sits.
Roman numerals to 1000
Year 5 carries the numerals on past a hundred. Two more letters, and two more pairs that go backwards.
For grown-ups
Place value at this scale is really about understanding that each column is ten times the one to its right, so a digit means something quite different depending on where it lands. Getting comfortable here, and learning to round a large number by looking only at the one digit that decides it, is what makes column arithmetic and decimals feel manageable later on. Counting down through zero into negatives and meeting Roman numerals also widens the idea of number itself, which is the groundwork the rest of Year 5 maths builds on.
What is in this topic
- Place value in numbers up to 1,000,000
- Reading and writing large numbers in words and figures
- Comparing, ordering and rounding large numbers
- Counting in powers of ten, and negative numbers through zero
- Roman numerals to 1000, and numbers on a number line
How to help at home
Place value with big numbers clicks when children read them aloud and say what each digit is worth, not when they stare at them silently. A few minutes a day with real numbers, said out loud, beats one long cramming session.
- Read big numbers aloud in chunks of three from the right. Cover 372000 with your fingers and reveal it as three hundred and seventy-two thousand, then ask what the 3 is worth (three hundred thousand) and what the 7 is worth (seventy thousand).
- Round together by underlining the one digit that decides it. To round 372000 to the nearest hundred thousand, point at the ten-thousands digit (7); 5 or more rounds up, so the answer is 400000. To the nearest ten thousand it stays 370000.
- Count out loud in powers of ten and let zero do its job. Start at 30000 and step down in tens of thousands: 30000, 20000, 10000, 0, then keep going through zero into negatives: -10000, -20000.
- Practise Roman numerals on real things like clock faces and book chapters. Build them up a step at a time: C is 100, so CCC is 300, CD is 400 and M is 1000, which makes MCD read as 1400.
Where children get stuck
The most common slip is misreading a number with a zero in the middle, so 305000 gets read or written as 35000. Fix it by labelling the columns: say there are 3 hundred thousands, 0 ten thousands and 5 thousands, and have your child write a 0 as a placeholder out loud rather than skipping it. Reading the number back in chunks of three usually catches the missing place.
The other frequent wobble is rounding by looking at the wrong digit, or thinking a bigger number always rounds up, so a child wrongly pushes 341000 up to 400000. Name the place you are rounding to, then look only at the single digit just to its right: 5 or more rounds up, 4 or less stays the same. For 372000 to the nearest hundred thousand you check the 7, so it rounds up to 400000, while 341000 checks the 4 and stays at 300000.