Homework help - place value

[LRB978]

I am not sure exactly what is expected for this homework, but it has to be back in tomorrow, so I thought I'd see what the mumsnet consensus is.

The task is to "Write place value of underlined digit" (all numbers are 3 digits long, for the purpose of mumsnet I have had to space them to underline the relevant number)

a) 3 3 4
b) 9 6 9
c) 2 3 0
d) 2 0 2
and so on.

So is it '3 tens' or 'thirty' for the first question? And if it is thirty, how does that work for the last 2 questions? Help please. (oh is for a low ability yr 4 - he is working around a 2b level, if that makes any difference)

[aJumpedUpPantryBoy]

a) 3 tens
b) 9 hundreds
c) 0 units
d) 0 tens

[NotAnotherBrick]

place value is 'hundreds', 'tens' or 'units' I reckon. So I'd say:

a) 'tens'
b) 'hundreds'
c) 'units'
d) 'tens'

I have no idea what 2b means, but why do schools send home homework that the children don't understand?

[Feenie]

It's 30 for the first one and 0 for the last two.

[LRB978]

2b is the level children are meant to be at at the end of year 2, so he is a good year behind. And to be fair to his teacher, he doesn't often remember things, unless he has done them over and over and over with exactly the same wording for the instruction. So it could be he has been doing place value this week, but if he hasn't done this activity with this wording, he will struggle to generalise from the activity he has done, IYSWIM. I normally check and ask the teacher if I am unsure before leaving the school, but I somehow missed this today.

The consensus so far (up to Feenie's post) is... one for each idea I had come up with.

[NotAnotherBrick]

Well jumpedup's one is nearly the same as mine...

I don't get Feenie's answer at all!

[aJumpedUpPantryBoy]

In the maths scheme we use the official answers in the answer book would be the ones I posted.
However, if someone had answered
30
900
0
0
I would still mark them as correct.

[LRB978]

Thank you everyone.

We have gone with the 3 tens etc, and I have put a note at the bottom of the page that we weren't sure which answer she was after but that seemed to be the best fit (it covers the hundreds/tens/units, the figure, and of course 3 tens is thirty). And in future I will remember to check each and every book when he comes out of school.

[Feenie]

I misread it! In SAT questions, when asked the value of the underlined digit, the first answer would be 30. When asked the place value, I agree it would be tens. Sorry for causing any confusion.

[RoadArt]

Children also need to understand the difference between place value and face value

Place Value is one of the harder concepts for children to understand, but unless they understand this, they will struggle with so many other maths strands.

I think having questions that the answer is 0 isnt really helping the kids explain the value, (if they dont understand place value) but they need to learn that its a marker that separates hundreds and units.

I am sure a teacher will be able to explain this better than I have just done