Place Value
Free place value game for 1st and 2nd grade: read tens-and-ones block pictures as two-digit numbers. Visual, fast, no sign-up needed.
Grade 1–2 · Free · No sign-up
How to play & why it works
The screen shows base-ten blocks — sticks of ten and single ones — and you pick the number they make. See 3 tens and 7 ones, answer 37. Rounds stay visual the whole way, because that is where place-value understanding actually lives.
Place value is the single deepest idea in elementary arithmetic: the digit 3 means thirty in one column and three in another. Children who miss it can still count, but column addition, regrouping and decimals will all mysteriously fail later. Block pictures make the idea concrete before notation abstracts it.
The productive habit: read the tens first, then attach the ones — "three tens… thirty-seven". Watch for the reversal trap (37 vs 73); the game mixes options that punish digit-swapping, which is precisely the error worth surfacing early.
The free MathIt app builds from here to hundreds, digit-value questions and place-shift multiplication (×10, ×100), inside its adaptive grade-by-grade curriculum.
Base-ten blocks make the idea visible: a stick is worth ten of the little cubes, so 3 sticks and 7 cubes read as 37 rather than as ten separate things. That exchange — ten of these for one of those — is the single idea the whole number system rests on.
Reversal errors are the tell. A child who reads 3 tens and 7 ones as 73 is treating the digits as a list rather than as positions with values. It is worth catching early, because every carrying and borrowing procedure later assumes place value is understood rather than memorised.
Skills you'll practice
Keep practicing
Frequently asked questions
What is place value?
The idea that a digit's value depends on where it sits. The 3 in 37 means 3 tens, not 3 — position carries meaning, which is what lets ten symbols write every number.
What are base-ten blocks?
Physical or pictured pieces where a single cube is one and a stick of ten cubes is ten. They let children see an exchange rather than take it on trust.
Why does my child write 73 instead of 37?
They are reading the digits in the order they see the blocks rather than by position. It is a very common early error and usually resolves with more work naming the tens and ones out loud before writing.
Get the full game
Adaptive difficulty, daily streaks, and live 2–5 player math battles — free on iOS and Android.