Nichole Fillman

Making Place Value Visible 

By Nichole Fillman 

Helping students truly understand place value is more than just getting the right answer; it’s about seeing how numbers work. Without a strong foundation, even familiar operations can become confusing. Author Nichole Fillman explores how making place value more visible through structured, visual models can support deeper understanding and more confident problem-solving in elementary math. 

• Common challenges students face when learning place value  

• How visual, structured models support base-ten understanding and reduce cognitive load  

• Classroom-ready strategies for composing, decomposing, and reasoning about numbers