Home | Lesson Archive | Year 3 Maths Archive | Lesson 3: big cats

Place Value: Lesson 3: big cats

2 - Whiteboard Challenges

The Lesson

Click on the tabs below or click here to view in PowerPoint.

In this exciting lesson, we will be reading, writing, representing and comparing numbers up to 1,000 in numerals and in words. We will also be recognising the place value of each digit in a 3-digit number. At the same time, we will be finding out how different big cat species differ in terms of their size, mass and other important characteristics.

Useful prior knowledge:

  • To confidently read, write, represent, compare and order numbers up to 100.
  • To be able to identify the place value of each digit in a 2-digit number.

Did you know?

The tiger is the biggest species of cat. It can grow up to 3 m long. Although a lion can grow to a similar length, a tiger is heavier. Some have a mass of 300 kg. That’s over 10 times heavier than the average 8-year-old child!

Whiteboard Challenges

Here are some typical body lengths (from the tip of the nose to the tip of the tail) for three of the largest big cat species – the jaguar, tiger and lion.

1) Can you use link lines to match the correct place value chart to the correct animal?

A cheetah has a shorter body length than each of the 3 big cats shown above.

2)  Can you make a number that represents the typical length of a cheetah by moving one counter in the jaguar place value chart?