---
title: "Year 5 Maths - Using Place Value Counters to Help with Multiplication"
url: "https://darwenstjames.co.uk/news/2026-01-08-year-5-maths-using-place-value-counters-to-help-with-multiplication"
school: "Darwen St James’ C of E Primary Academy"
---

# Year 5 Maths - Using Place Value Counters to Help with Multiplication

  ![](https://files.schudio.com/darwen-st-james-c-of-e-primary-academy/images/news/b87dc585-f12e-4741-9f75-6b4b31ced950.jpg)   8 January 2026

![](https://darwen-st-james-c-of-e-primary-academy.schudio.com/images/news/b87dc585-f12e-4741-9f75-6b4b31ced950.jpg)

This week, Year 5 began mastering the complex process of long multiplication. To build a strong foundation, we first revisited short multiplication (4 digits by 1 digit), using place value counters and repeated addition to visualize the concept. Once this was secured, the children successfully transitioned to the formal written method. Feeling confident, they progressed to multiplying 2-digit numbers by 2-digit numbers—initially using the grid method to see the products before moving on to the more abstract formal column method.

  [Year 5](https://darwenstjames.co.uk/news/tag/year-5) [Maths](https://darwenstjames.co.uk/news/tag/maths)

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