write peer response to, Place value is an important concept because it is the foundation for undersdtanding how numbers are written, spoken, and grouped. In order to understand what numbers actually mean a child needs to understand the concept of place value. Place value means that a number has a certain value based on the place where it sits wthin the whole number. This is imprtant because as students begn to solve math problems with larger numbers they will need to understand place value to solve the problem and line the numbers up correctly. There are several important concepts that students need to understand when it comes to place value. The first is that zero can be used as a placeholder. The number 5 by itself has a different value tha 500. Those two zeros are takng up the tens and the ones place and putting that 5 in the hundreds place. That five now mean five hundred. The seconds concept that students need to understand is what each place value means. I have often taught this using manipulatives. I will show students and individual ones cube, then a stick of tens, and then those tens grouped together to make a hundred. This visual helps students to understand that each place holds a different value. I will often give students a number and then have them count out the appropriate amount of blocks to represent that number