5 Creative Ideas To Build A Hundreds Number Chart and 6 Activities for Young Learners

Math isn’t an easy subject to introduce to kids. Numbers and equations can be tricky for young students to wrap their head around, and challenging to teach if you’re not a math whiz either!

Luckily there are some great tools, tips, and tricks for getting kids comfortable with numbers and mathematics.

One of the best tools for beginners is a hundreds chart. Here’s how you use it…

What is a hundreds number chart?

A hundreds chart (or hundreds board) is a valuable tool for any kid starting to learn math, and serves as a straightforward and interactive introduction to simple equations. Hundreds charts teach kids number recognition, how to count and identify number patterns, and can be a useful visual aid for adding and subtracting.

There are countless different ways to form a hundreds chart, but it’s essentially a 10×10 grid with every number from 1-100 written in sequential order. Kids can start in the lower numbers as they’re learning to count, and move through the chart as they get more confident.

They’ll inevitably begin to notice number patterns — like how every tenth number has the same final digit, or counting by 9s makes a diagonal line.

Creative ideas to build a hundreds number chart

Making a hundreds chart is as simple as creating a grid and filling in the numbers. If you can, it’s a good idea to make it as a digital chart — that way you can print off multiple copies for your kids to mark up and draw on as they learn.

Here are some creative variations to make a more fun or engaging chart for your kids.

Puzzle chart

Instead of drawing a grid, write the numbers 1-100 on a blank 100-piece jigsaw puzzle in numerical order. If you can’t find a blank one, just grab a cheap puzzle from the dollar store and write the numbers on the back of each piece.

Break up the puzzle and ask your kids to put it back together by using their counting skills.

Circular number chart

Some kids can get tripped up moving from one row of a number chart to the next. This is where a circular, or spiral, number chart really comes in handy.

Just print off a normal grid chart, and curl the paper edges together so the 10 meets the 11, the 20 meets the 21, etc, and tape it together. You could glue the chart to some construction paper to make it more sturdy if needed.

Partial chart

Give your kids a chart where only some of the numbers are filled in. Then, they have to use their counting and number recognition skills to fill in the rest.

For more advanced classes, try making this a race against the clock (or against other students, too!)

Reverse chart

Make your hundreds chart in reverse, so it starts at 100 and counts down to 1. Kids might take a minute to get used to it, but soon enough they’ll begin to recognize the same number patterns — no matter the direction of the numbers.

120 number chart

Some teachers like to take their hundreds chart all the way up to 120, so it’s a 10×12 grid. This is to ensure kids understand that numbers are infinite, and don’t stop at 100 even though it seems like such a big and final number.

Activities to start practicing with your hundreds number chart

Finding patterns

Hundreds charts are excellent for showing kids number patterns. Ask them to mark off the numbers 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30, 35, and 40. Then, encourage them to talk about what they notice with all these numbers.

Hopefully, they’ll be able to identify that they all end with 5 or 0, and they’re all in the same columns on the chart.

From here you can ask questions that’ll lead to identifying more number patterns: What happens if we skip count by 5, but start at the number 2? If we skip count by 7, do we still see patterns emerge on the chart?

Solve number riddles

Come up with a set of simple number riddles that your kids can solve with the help of their hundreds chart. For example: “Find the number that is 7 less than 93” or “Find a number that is greater than 23 but less than 29”.

Race to fill

If you have two students, you can give them a blank 10×10 grid and ask them to fill in their own hundreds chart. Make it a race to see who can complete the chart — with no mistakes — first.

If you only have one child you could record the time it takes to fill in the grid, and see if they can beat their own time the following week.

This could be a great introductory task leading to the ‘Partial chart’ race we mentioned before.

Mystery numbers

Provide your kids with a hundreds chart, then think of a secret number and give your kids clues they can use to figure out what it is.

For example:

• Clue #1: The mystery number has two digits.
• Clue #2: The mystery number is less than 14.
• Clue #3: You can land on the mystery number by counting in 5s.
• What’s the mystery number? 10

Battleships

Laminate your hundreds charts and then your kids can use markers to play a form of battleships. Use counters, coins, or even M&Ms to place “ships” on their chart. Put up a divider between the two players and they can take turns citing numbers and seeing if they make a hit on a ship.

For an added challenge, ask older kids to state the number they want to “sink” by making it the result of an equation. For example, if they think their opponent has a ship on number 48, they’d need to say 30 + 18, or similar.

How far apart?

Give your child a hundreds chart and two counters. Ask them to place the counter on a number of your choosing, and then the other one on whichever number they like. Then ask the student to count and determine how far apart the two numbers are. For example, the number 6 is 14 away from the number 20.

It’s essentially subtraction, but approached and presented in a different way.

Hundreds of ways to teach math…

Hit a wall teaching math to your kid? Check out our database of math worksheets on a huge variety of topics.

The full-color worksheet bundles have engaging activities and tasks to help make math understandable and fun — and there’s hundreds (if not thousands) to get stuck into!