Numbers up to a million — Year 4 introduction

Numbers up to a million — Year 4 introduction

Numbers up to a million

Last year you mastered the numbers up to a thousand. This year you go a thousand times further — all the way to a million. The trick is the same as before: every number is just a stack of millions, hundred-thousands, ten-thousands, thousands, hundreds, tens and ones, all lined up next to each other.

From a shelf to a warehouse

Remember the ten shelves from Year 3, each with a hundred marbles? That was a thousand. Now picture an entire warehouse with ten rooms, each one packed with those shelves. That is your new playground.

1 marble = 1

1 bag = 10

1 shelf = 100

1 cabinet = 1 000

1 room of cabinets = 10 000

1 floor of rooms = 100 000

1 warehouse = 1 000 000

The same trick — every step is ten times the previous one. So a million is a thousand thousand.

Warehouse with ten floors and ten rooms each holding cabinets full of marbles

Six- and seven-digit numbers

Take 285 472:

  • the leftmost digit (2) tells you how many full floors — two hundred-thousands (200 000),
  • the next (8) — eighty-thousands (80 000),
  • then (5) — five-thousands (5 000),
  • then (4) — four-hundreds (400),
  • then (7) — seven-tens (70),
  • and (2) is just two loose marbles.

Add them up: 200 000 + 80 000 + 5 000 + 400 + 70 + 2 = 285 472. We read it as "two hundred and eighty-five thousand, four hundred and seventy-two".

The thousands gap

Numbers above 999 are written with a thin space (or comma in US style) before each group of three digits: 3 472, 10 000, 285 472, 1 000 000. The space marks each thousand-step and makes huge numbers readable.

The role of zero

Zero is still the silent placeholder. Look at 5 080:

  • 5 thousands,
  • 0 hundreds (no full shelf),
  • 8 tens,
  • 0 ones.

Without those zeros you would write 58 — a completely different, much smaller number. Always read every digit in order, including the zeros.

What you will learn

Try it out