Reading and Writing Numbers Teaching Resources

Teach students how to read and write numbers in a variety of forms with this extensive collection of printable worksheets, digital activities and more resources for Australian primary teachers!

Bring these essential maths skills to life with the help of Australian maths curriculum-aligned resources that have been created with your lesson plans — and your students — in mind! Best of all, each resource has undergone a careful review process by an expert teacher on the Teach Starter team to ensure it's classroom-ready.

Looking for tips to help your students express quantities accurately and effectively? Read on for a primer from our teacher team on reading and writing numbers, how to teach these concepts and more!

Teaching Students How to Read Numbers

Before we can talk about writing numbers, we need to to set the foundation with reading them.

Once students can recognise numerals, it's typical for teachers to dive deep into place value. We want our students to understand that each digit's position in a number represents a different value (e.g., tens, hundreds, thousands, etc.).

With that comes the ability to read two- and three-digit numbers (and later even larger whole numbers!) as our students come to understand that they're not seeing two distinct numerals side-by-side but a brand-new number that has been formed.

This requires learning new language too — words like twenty, thirty, forty, etc.

So let's break down how to read a few numbers!

Reading Two-Digit Numbers

In a two-digit number, the leftmost digit represents the number of tens, and the rightmost digit represents the number of ones. For example, let's look at the number 35.

• • The digit 3 is in the tens place, so it represents 3 tens or 30.
  • The digit 5 is in the ones place, so it represents 5 ones.

To read the number 35, you say 'thirty-five.'

Here are a few more examples of how to read two-digit numbers:

• 45 — forty-five
• 27 — twenty-seven
• 93 — ninety-three

Reading Three-Digit Numbers

Let's go one level up. In a three-digit whole number, the leftmost digit represents the number of hundreds, the middle digit represents the number of tens and the rightmost digit represents the number of ones. For example, let's look at the number 371.

• • The digit 3 is in the hundreds place, so it represents 3 hundreds or 300.
  • The digit 7 is in the tens place, so it represents 7 tens or 70.
  • The digit 1 is in the ones place, so it represents 1 one.

To read the number 371, you say 'three hundred seventy-one.'

Here are a few more examples of how to read three-digit numbers:

• 134 — one hundred thirty-four
• 469 — four hundred sixty-nine
• 873 — eight hundred seventy-three

Teaching Students How to Write Numbers

Now that students can read multi-digit numbers, we can start talking about writing them in different forms, including expanded form. Writing numbers again comes back to place value, with each digit in a number representing a different value based on its position within the number.

Here's what that looks like:

How to Write Two-Digit Numbers

Write the digit in the tens place first. This will be the leftmost digit in the two-digit number.

Next, write the digit in the ones place to the right of the first number.

For example, to write the number 'thirty-five,' you would:

1. Write the digit 3 in the tens place.
2. Write the digit 5 in the ones place.
3. In the end, you have written 35.

How to Write Three-Digit Numbers

Write the digit in the hundreds place first. This will be the leftmost digit in the three-digit number.

Next, write the digit in the tens place to the right of the first number. This will be the middle digit in the three-digit number. Finally, write the digit in the ones place to the right of the middle digit.

For example, to write the number 'three hundred fifty-two,' you would:

1. Write the digit 3 in the hundreds place.
2. Write the digit 5 in the tens place.
3. Write the digit 2 in the ones place.