Numbers to 1000

🏟️ Imagine a stadium packed with fans. The announcer shouts: "There are 847 people here today!" That is a three-digit number — bigger than anything you used in Year 2. This lesson will show you exactly how numbers like 847 work, how to compare them, and how to hop along a number line in giant steps of 50 and 100. Ready? Let's go!

Every three-digit number is built from three types of digit: hundreds, tens, and ones. Think of it like a block tower 🧱. The bottom layer is the biggest — hundreds. The middle layer is tens. The top layer is ones. In the number 847, the digit 8 is in the hundreds place, 4 is in the tens place, and 7 is in the ones place.

We can write three-digit numbers in words too. The hundreds part comes first, then we say "and", then the rest. So 847 is written: eight hundred and forty-seven. 305 is three hundred and five. Notice that 305 has zero tens — the zero holds the tens place open, like a placeholder keeping everything in the right column.

Now let's compare numbers using the symbols < and >. The symbol < means "is less than" and > means "is greater than". A handy trick: imagine the symbol is a hungry crocodile 🐊 — it always opens its mouth towards the BIGGER number. So 364 < 512 means 364 is less than 512. And 780 > 499 means 780 is greater than 499.

Finally, let's practise counting in steps of 50 and 100. Counting in 100s is like going up a staircase one big floor at a time: 100, 200, 300, 400... Counting in 50s is like climbing half a floor each time: 50, 100, 150, 200, 250... You can see where these numbers land on a number line to help picture the jumps.