Week 1 of 8
Week 1
2nd Grade → 3rd Grade · Place value hundreds and Vowel teams
Math
Place Value: Hundreds
Reading three-digit numbers as hundreds, tens, and ones. Early second grade.
The mistake to watch for. Writing "three hundred forty-two" as 30042 — each spoken part written literally.
How to help. Write the expanded form first (300 + 40 + 2), then push the parts together.
A worked example
Take 352. The 3 is in the hundreds place (300), the 5 is in the tens place (50), and the 2 is in the ones place (2). So 352 = 3 hundreds, 5 tens and 2 ones.
Reading & language
Vowel Teams
Reading two vowels together that make one sound — the ai in rain, the oa in boat. Second grade.
The mistake to watch for. Trying to sound out both vowels separately — reading "boat" as "bo-at" instead of one sound.
How to help. Teach vowel teams as a single unit from the start, not two letters: cover everything except "oa" and practice saying that sound alone before adding the rest of the word.
A worked example
Two vowels can team up to make one sound: in 'boat' the letters oa make the long o sound, and in 'rain' the letters ai make the long a sound.
Words for this week
- digit
- One of the ten number symbols 0 to 9. The number 47 has two digits.
- place
- Where a digit sits in a number: ones, tens or hundreds.
- hundred
- Ten tens, written 100.
- value
- How much a digit is worth because of where it sits. In 47, the 4 is worth 40.
- number
- A word or symbol that tells how many, like 5 or twelve.
- vowel
- The letters a, e, i, o and u. Every syllable has a vowel sound.
- team
- Two letters that work together to make one sound, like oa in boat.
- sound
- What you hear when you say a letter or a word.
- long
- The vowel sound that says its own name, like the a in cake.
- syllable
- One beat in a word. Elephant has three syllables: el-e-phant.
Read this week
Diving Beetle
A short animals article from our Learn library, chosen for this reading level. Read it together, then ask your child to tell you one new thing they learned.