3rd Grade Place Value Blocks Matching Worksheet: Cubes, Flats, Rods and Ones

A big cube, a few rods and some small squares: what number is that? This 3rd grade place value blocks matching worksheet shows four drawings of base-ten blocks. A guide on the side reminds children what each piece is worth: a cube for a thousand, a flat for a hundred, a rod for ten and a small square for one. For each drawing, four numbers are offered, such as 1,067, 167, 1,760 and 160. Your child counts the pieces and checks the number that matches. A second page gives the answer key.

One piece, one place

Each kind of block stands for one place in the number. Cubes give the thousands digit, flats the hundreds, rods the tens and small squares the ones.

So 1 cube, 6 rods and 7 small squares make 1,067. There is no flat, so the hundreds digit is 0.

Seeing a number as blocks helps third graders understand why 1,067 and 1,760 are so different, even though they share three digits.

At the table: count each kind of block

Start with drawing d, which has no cube. Ask your child to count the flats, then the rods, then the small squares, and to write the three digits in order: 333.

The trap comes with the missing pieces. In drawing c there are no rods, so the tens digit is 0, and the answer is 1,109, not 1,190. In drawing a there is no flat. Ask, "How many hundreds do you see? Then which digit goes in the hundreds place?"

Small squares are easy to miss, so let your child point at each one.

Finally, check the four answers with the answer key.

Build numbers with money or pasta

At home, use $100 bills, $10 bills and $1 coins from a board game. Ask your child to build 161, then 1,067 with a pretend $1,000 bill.

You can also make your own blocks: single pieces of dry pasta for ones, strips of ten for tens. Try a number with a zero in the middle.

When the page is done, name the effort: "You saw that a missing block means a zero in the number."