Expanded Form Teaching Resources
Download expanded form teaching resources designed to make math more fun this school year and make your math centers easier to plan! Every resource on the Teach Starter website has been created by an expert teacher and reviewed by another team of expert teachers to ensure they’re ready for your classroom and your students.
Get students thinking about how large numbers can be broken down into individual place values and better understand their value with resources aligned with Common Core math.
New to teaching this section of the math curriculum, or just looking for some tips on engaging your students? Read on for a primer from our teacher team, including an explanation of what expanded form is, how it helps kids break down multi-digit whole numbers and how it relates to place value.
What Is Expanded Form? A Kid-Friendly Definition
Let's start with a student-friendly way to introduce expanded form to your math class! Here's a definition our maths teachers use in the classroom:
Expanded form is a way of representing a number as the sum of its place values by breaking the number down into its individual parts. Writing a number in this form shows the value of each digit in the number.
Expanded Form Examples — How to Write Numbers in Expanded Form
A definition is helpful, but how do you make this concept more concrete for your young learners and help them understand how to write numbers in this format themselves? Expanded form examples, of course!
Let's take the number 345. When we break it down, this number has:
- A 3 in the hundreds place
- A 4 in the tens place
- A 5 in the ones place
To write the number 345 in expanded form, we would create an addition problem:
300 + 40 + 5
If you add these three numbers back together, you will end up with 345!
Teaching Expanded Form
Expanded form activities are often pulled out in the first few weeks of the school year, but you might consider adding these to your math centers all year for a few reasons!
- It helps younger math students understand the value of zeros in those longer three- and four-digit numbers.
- It helps students understand how the digits 0, 1, and 2 form multi-digit numbers.
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Thousands Place Value Number Expander Template
Explore expanding 4 digit numbers with your students using this number expander template.
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Hundreds Place Value Number Expander Template
Reinforce place value and writing 3-digit numbers in expanded form with your students.
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2-Digit and 3-Digit Expanded Form Interactive Activity
Use this interactive activity with your students to practice expanded form through to the hundreds place.
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Place Value Cacti - 3-Digit Expanded Form Activity
A fun place value activity for students to play in the classroom when exploring 3-digit numbers and expanded forms.
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Number, Word, and Base Ten Forms - St. Patrick's Day Activity
Have some fun matching number, word, and base-ten forms with a fun St. Patrick's Day activity.
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Valentine's Day - Number Form Match-Up
Identify three-digit numbers in standard form, word form, expanded form, and in base-ten form with a printable Valentine’s Day Math activity.
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Expanded Form Dominoes (2-Digit Numbers)
Use this set of dominoes when learning how to match 2-digit numbers written in standard form and expanded form.
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Expanded Form Dominoes (3-Digit Numbers)
Use this set of dominoes when learning how to match 3-digit numbers written in standard form and expanded form.
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Expanded Form Dominoes (4-Digit Numbers)
Use this set of dominoes when learning how to match 4-digit numbers written in standard form and expanded form.
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Expanded Form Dominoes (5-Digit Numbers)
Use this set of dominoes when learning how to match 5-digit numbers written in standard form and expanded form.
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Three and Four-Digit Place Value Memory Game
Practice matching numbers in standard form, expanded form, and word form with this memory-style place value game.
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Place Value Worksheets (Platypus Theme)
Practice writing numbers in standard form, expanded form, and word form with this differentiated worksheet.
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Number Forms Assessment
Test your students' skills with recognizing and writing numbers in word form and expanded form with this quick formative assessment.
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Number Talks - Number Sense Task Cards
Build number sense skills with this set of 24 task cards.
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Number Talks - Building Numbers Task Cards
Build number sense skills with this set of 24 task cards.
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Number Talks - 2-Digit Place Value Task Cards
Build number sense skills up to 120 with this set of 32 place value task cards.
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Number Forms Worksheet
A fill-in-the-blank worksheet for your students to practice putting 3-digit numbers in standard form, expanded form, and written form.
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Flip, Draw, Expand! - Place Value Worksheet (2-Digit Numbers)
A worksheet to use when reviewing 2-digit place value.
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4-Digit Expanded Form Worksheet
Practice using expanded form up to the thousands place with this 1-page worksheet.
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3-Digit Place Value Warm-Up - Interactive PowerPoint
An engaging 44-slide interactive PowerPoint to use when learning about place value to 3-digits.
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3-Digit Roll It, Make It, Expand It! - Place Value Worksheet
A worksheet for students to use when learning about the place value of three-digit numbers.
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3-Digit Number of the Day Worksheet
A 3-digit place value worksheet to represent the number of the day in different ways.
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Representing Two-Digit Numbers - Place Value Worksheet
A set of worksheets for students to use when learning about place value and the different way two-digit numbers can be represented.
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Exploring 5-Digit Place Value PowerPoint
A 38-slide PowerPoint template to use when exploring place value in the ten thousands place.
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5-Digit Place Value - Assessment
Assess your students' knowledge of place value to the ten thousands place with this open-ended worksheet.
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4-Digit Place Value - Assessment
Assess your students' knowledge of place value to the thousands place with this open-ended worksheet.
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5-Digit Place Value Warm-Up - Interactive PowerPoint
An engaging 44-slide interactive PowerPoint to use when learning about place value to 5-digits.
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Numeral Expander for 5-Digit Numbers
A resource to help reinforce place value and writing 5-digit numbers in expanded form.
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5-Digit Number of the Day Worksheet
A 5-digit place value worksheet to represent the number of the day in different ways.
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Expanding Numbers Beyond 10,000
A 60-minute lesson in which students will investigate how place value can be used to expand numbers.
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Decomposing Numbers Beyond 10,000
A 60-minute lesson in which students will investigate how place value can be used to decompose numbers into smaller parts.
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Exploring 4-Digit Place Value - Assessment
An assessment task in which students will demonstrate an understanding of place value in the thousands place.