Writing Numbers in Figures
Children need to have a thorough knowledge of numbers if they are to progress in maths.
This is a basic activity to write numbers in numerical form. Numbers written in words are shown and these are read also. The child has to write the number in the numerical form. This activity has four levels. Level 1 has numbers having two digits. Level 2 has numbers with 3-digits. Level 3 and Level 4 deal with 3 and 4 digit numbers.
The child should have a good understanding of place and place value to do this activity.
This activity helps the parents to know their child’s level of understanding of place and place value. Like many other activities in this website, this activity also helps parents to know the areas of strength and weaknesses of their child.
This activity tests the child’s understanding of place and place values. The child should master these concepts.
Tips for parents
If your child has difficulty in doing this activity, find out the problem areas.
- Teaching double digit numbers.Can your child write numbers with two digits?
- If your child is struggling with two-digit numbers, use a grid of numbers up to 100.
Repeated reading of the numbers would be helpful. The child reads horizontally as well as vertically.1
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- Use a white board and different coloured pens. Use always one colour for unit place and another colour for tens place. Gradually, do way with the colour codes. The child should be able to improve her/his understanding of numbers to read them without colour codes. Have regular sessions to teach the names of numbers. Write a number in words and ask the child to write it in numerical form. Similarly, the child should be able to write the number in words.
- Using tamarind seeds or any other small objects for counting would be very useful. The child can be given a bunch of seeds and she/he may be asked to count them. Ask the child to count in twos, threes and so on. Currency notes and coins can also be used.
- Exercises can be given to fill small grids. Three examples are given below.
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As a challenge task, a portion of the grid can be copied and the child may be asked to fill in the blank boxes. See two examples below. Initially, the entire grid of up to 100 numbers can be shown to the child to understand the patterns. After sufficient practice, the child may be asked to do the problems without the help of the grid.
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- The grid can also be used to teach additions and subtractions so that the child understands more about place and place value.
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The child can be taught addition and subtraction of numbers like 15+2, 13+4, 15+5, 11+7 etc. Similarly, 18-2,16-12, 20-5 etc.
Use bigger grids to teach addition and subtraction.
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57+4, 58+7 etc and 63-4, 61-9 etc can be taught to the child.
- You can also use matching activities to teach numerical and word forms of numbers.
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sixty-four
a
55
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twenty-one
b
17
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seventeen
c
64
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ninety-one
d
91
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fifty-five
e
17
- Another method is to ask the child to correct the mistakes.A sample of the activity is given below.
Correct the mistakes.
no
Written form
Numerical form
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sixty- seven
76
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sixteen
60
3
fifty
15
4
ninety- three
903
5
eighty-eight
808
- If your child is struggling with two-digit numbers, use a grid of numbers up to 100.
- Teaching numbers with three digits.Does your child struggle in writing numbers with three digits? If your child is sure of numbers with two digits, learning numbers with more digits would be easy.
The first thing that the child should understand is that hundred denotes three digits. When we say 634, the child should immediately be able to understand that this is a 3-digit number and also the number starts with 6. The child should then learn to split 634 as 600+34.
The child may get confused with numbers having zero in between. For example, how to write the number when we say seven hundred nine? The moment the number is read, the child may be asked to write 7_ _( seven and two dashes denoting the three digits). Nine comes in unit place. So the number now becomes 7_9. Since only hundred place and unit place are mentioned, in the tens place add zero. The number is complete -709.
Another area where the child can have confusion is with problems such as what comes after 899 or after 999.More practice is required.
Filling the grid and matching exercises can also be done. Some examples are given below.
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seven hundred eighty-four
a
811
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nine hundred nine
b
350
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three hundred fifty
c
201
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eight hundred eleven
d
784
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Two hundred one
e
909
- Teaching numbers with four and five digits.
The above methods can be used to teach numbers with four and five digits.
Making the child count currency notes of different denominations is a good activity.
Ask your child to prepare questions for you. Preparing questions is an excellent method to master a topic.
Search the net to access worksheets on this topic.
