Being trained in Montessori Method of teaching and having taught in a Montessori setting for a good 7 years, I realised the importance of relaying the right concept of place values in preschoolers as early as at Nursery level. This foundation is critical as they will be able to see the relationship between numbers in relation to their place values.
We all know that very young children need to be exposed to concrete materials in order to make sense of what they are doing and learning. They need to experience the process of working through the specific tasks before they could acquire the concept. As with a Montessori setting, the children are taught this concept using the 'Golden Beads' using sets of units, tens, hundreds and thousands. However, in a different setting, this can always be substituted with other manipulative and the closest to it will be the unifix cubes.
Once the child is able to quantify the sequence of numbers 1-10 correctly, he or she can then be taught to do grouping of sets of 10. As in the case of the place value of 34, children will be given the understanding that '4' stands for ones or units, and the '3' refers to the tens. Therefore, 34 is the same as 3 tens and 4 ones or units. And when it comes to writing it in symbols, they will be able to see that the number on the right represents the smallest set of values up to 9. If one more is added to it, it will become 10 which requires a different placeing. The same goes for hundreds and thousands (for example having sets of 9 tens and if 1 ten being added to the set, a 100 will be formed and so on)
This concept proved very essential and helpful in preparing children for futher mathematical functions in their later years. It really makes a difference whether a child is equipped or not equipped with this concept for their understanding number concepts and values to be challenged further.
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