Number Concepts to 1000

Numbers to 1000 require a three-dimensional understanding of place value: hundreds, tens, and ones. 342 means 3 hundreds (300) plus 4 tens (40) plus 2 ones (2). The digit 4 in 342 is worth 40, not 4. Zero as a placeholder (408 has no tens) is a critical conceptual moment: without zero, our number system would need 10 different symbols for every position. Skip-counting from any starting point in either direction builds the number sense that underpins all computation.