Expanded Form

When looking for beginning expanded form activities, start by reviewing the ideas we have pulled together below.

These beginning expanded form activities are a good starting point when you are working on building the concept.

Help children understand the meaning of this term and provide students with engaging practice.

This is another free resource for teachers and homeschool families from The Curriculum Corner.

Beginning Expanded Form

Before children are ready to explore the meaning of expanded form, they should have a solid understanding of place value.  If your children need more instruction in place value before beginning expanded form, we suggest looking at Counting 1s, 10s & 100s.

We suggest beginning by using manipulatives such as base 10 blocks or bundles of straws. 

We also recommend beginning with numbers less than 100 and moving into numbers with 3-digits and then 4-digits.

The materials we are sharing will help you work with 2-digit, 3-digit and 4-digit numbers.

What is expanded form?

Expanded form is the notation.

It is a way that we can write a number while telling the value of each digit.

When writing using expanded form, you are creating an algebraic expression.

Here is an example to help you understand:

The number is 6,372.

Here is the expanded form of this number:

6,000 + 300 + 70 + 2

This tells us that there are six thousands, three hundreds, seven tens and two ones.

Introducing Expanded Form

• Begin by helping students understand expanded form, give them an amount of counters. 
• Have them tell you the total number. 
• Then, ask them to identify how many hundreds, tens and ones the number has. 
• Record these answers on the board. 
• Next, record the value of each.  For example, if students have 2 bundles of 100 the value of the digit in the hundreds spot is 200. 
• When you have recorded the value of each digit, you are ready to show students what expanded form looks like.  Below the chart you created, write an equation using expanded form. 
• If the total amount was 275, the equation would be 200 + 70 + 5= 275.  Repeat this activity until students begin to understand the meaning of expanded form.

Number Folds

This is a visual manipulative activity. It is designed to help students visualize how a number is being stretched.

You will cut the page into four strips. Give one strip to each student.

Next, students will fold the paper. It will be an accordion type fold. Children might need help with this!

The idea is to fold it back and forth so that the hundreds place block in the first portion, the tens place in the second portion and the ones spot are lined up to form a three-digit number.

Once students have their papers folded correctly, give the class a three-digit number.

They will record the number on their folded strip.

The next step is for them to unfold their paper. This is a great visual for the expanding portion of expanded form.

Have your students write zeros in the empty boxes.

You can then practice writing the full equation on white boards.

This activity can be repeated in small groups of students who need additional practice.

Place Value Stacks

This activity was created to give students a visual that helps them understand expanded form.

Print and laminate each page. It might be helpful to print each grouping on a different color of cardstock. For example, the thousands might print on red and the hundreds on yellow.

After printing, laminating and cutting apart, add one of our Build a Number recording pages to the center.

Provide students with the cards to match their recording page.

They will then select a card from each pile to build a number. The cards are created so they can stack the cards to form a larger number.

The children can then unstack the cards to see the expanded form.

Stretch Your Number

There are three worksheets that you will provide with the correct number of dice.

Students will roll the given number of dice and form a 2, 3 or 4-digit number.

Their job will be to write each number in expanded form.

You can download these free place value printables here:

Math Download

Looking for other resources to add to your classroom? Try these freebies:

As with all of our resources, The Curriculum Corner creates these for free classroom use. Our products may not be sold. You may print and copy for your personal classroom use. These are also great for home school families!

You may not modify and resell in any form. Please let us know if you have any questions.