Hundreds Chart
A hundreds chart is a 10 × 10 grid of numbers, 1 to 100 or 0 to 99, ten to a row. Choose the numbering, whether to show every number, leave some missing for practice or leave the chart blank, and shading, and it is drawn to fit your paper.
Your sheet
Printing: choose Actual size or 100%, not “Fit to page”, so 1 cm prints as 1 cm. How to check.
How is the chart arranged?
Cell (row r, column c), counting from 0 = start + 10 × r + c. Moving down a row adds 10; moving right adds 1.
Worked example. On the 1 to 100 chart, row 4 (counting from 0) and column 6 hold 1 + 40 + 6 = 47. On the 0 to 99 chart the same cell holds 46, and the row runs 40 to 49, all in the forties. With “every 3rd number missing”, the cells for 3, 6, 9 … are blank, 33 gaps in all.
Patterns to colour
Multiples of 2 make vertical stripes; multiples of 5 make two columns; multiples of 9 make a diagonal; multiples of 11 make the other diagonal. Colouring the multiples of 3 and of 4 in two colours shows the multiples of 12 where they overlap. Each pattern is a lesson in itself.
Games on the chart
“Race to 100”: roll a die, move forward, say the number you land on. “Guess my number”: one player picks a number and the other asks yes/no questions (“Is it more than 50? Is it even?”) and crosses out squares. A blank chart becomes a board for either.
From the chart to the number line
The hundreds chart is a number line folded into rows of ten. Showing both side by side helps children see that 47 is the same distance from 50 whether it sits in a grid or on a line.
Questions about the hundreds chart
What is a hundreds chart?
A ten-by-ten grid of the numbers 1 to 100 (or 0 to 99), ten to a row. Children use it to count, to add and subtract by moving along rows and down columns, and to see patterns such as multiples and odd and even numbers.
1 to 100 or 0 to 99: which should I use?
The 1 to 100 chart is the traditional one and ends each row in a multiple of ten. The 0 to 99 chart puts every row’s numbers in the same decade (20 to 29 on one row), which some teachers prefer because the tens digit is constant along a row. Both are here.
What is the “some numbers missing” chart?
A practice chart with every third (or any nth) number left blank for the child to fill in. Set “Leave every … number blank” to control how many gaps there are: every 2nd is hard, every 5th is gentle.
What is the blank chart for?
Writing the numbers in from scratch, colouring patterns (every multiple of 3, the even numbers, the square numbers) or making a game board. It is also a hundred squares for counting in groups.
How do I add on a hundreds chart?
To add 10, move straight down one row. To add 1, move right one square. So 34 + 23 is: down two rows to 54, then right three to 57. Subtracting goes up and left.