This method is a practical and visual way to help children understand what happens to the digits in a number when we multiply or divide them by ten, a hundred, and a thousand.
To start, you’ll need a place value grid that’s divided into thousands, hundreds, tens, and ones. There’s also a decimal point, which allows us to work with tenths and hundredths. You can use magnetic numbers, a whiteboard pen, or a regular pen to represent the digits. Click here to download some ready made grids.
When we multiply a number by ten, it’s important for children to grasp that the number becomes ten times larger. Visually, the digit in the number moves one place to the left because the number ten has one zero in it. Since we’re making the number bigger, it shifts to the left. To keep the place value correct, we need to put a placeholder in the ones column.
For example, if we start with the number 5 and multiply it by ten, it becomes 50. The digit 5 moves to the left, and we place a zero in the ones column to maintain the correct place value.
When we multiply a number by 100, we follow a similar process. However, this time the digit moves two places to the left because the number one hundred has two zeros in it. This represents going a hundred times larger. So, the digit 5 moves into the tens and then into the hundreds place. As before, we need to use placeholders to maintain the proper place value.
For instance, if we start with the number 5 and multiply it by 100, it becomes 500. The digit 5 moves two places to the left, and we put zeros in the tens and ones columns to preserve the place value.
Multiplying by 1000 works similarly. The digit in the number moves three places to the left because the number one thousand has three zeros in it. So, the digit 5 moves into the hundreds, tens, and ones places. Placeholders are used to maintain the correct place value.
For instance, if we start with the number 5 and multiply it by 1000, it becomes 5000. The digit 5 moves three places to the left, and we place zeros in the hundreds, tens, and ones columns to keep the place value accurate.
