A hundreds chart printable for counting, puzzles and the 100th day

Fill-in chart. A blank ten-by-ten grid with the prompt 'Write the numbers from 1 to 100.' Children write the numbers in order, which shows whether they understand the row structure. Missing numbers. A chart with some squares removed; the child fills in the blanks. Color-by-pattern. A chart with a key for coloring by twos, fives, tens or odd and even. Each version prints on one page with a name line at the top. The fill-in chart is the one to use when you want to see what a child can do without a model.

Print the fill-in chart for assessment, morning work or a center where children build the chart one row at a time. Print the missing-number chart when you want a quicker task that still checks place value; start with five blanks and add more as the child gains confidence. Print the color-by-pattern chart for the 100th day, a substitute folder or a quiet activity. Keep one completed fill-in chart as a desk reference: once a child has written the numbers, that page becomes the answer key for the next activity.

Count by ones, twos, fives and tens. Color the path and compare the patterns. Add and subtract 10. Move one row down or up; add or subtract 1 by moving across. Place value. Circle a number, then show how many tens and ones it has. Skip-count riddles. 'I am 10 more than 47. What am I?' Missing-number puzzles. Cover a few squares with a sticky note and guess. Mystery picture. Color the squares from a key to reveal a shape. Rounding. Find the nearest ten by looking left and right. Money. Count 100 pennies, then trade for a dollar. Data. Roll two dice 100 times and color the sums. The 100th day. Count the days, color the chart and find 100.

Choose US Letter portrait and 100 percent scale. Do not use fit to page; it stretches the grid and the columns stop lining up with a ten-frame. Plain paper is fine for a worksheet; card stock is better for a desk mat or a reusable center. Slip the chart into a plastic sleeve and use a dry-erase marker for repeated practice. For a wall chart, print at 129 percent on 11×17 paper or tile four pages. The grid lines are dark enough to photocopy, and the numbered versions stay readable from a small-group table.

A hundreds chart is a grid of numbers; a 10×10 mat is a grid for objects. They look similar and do different jobs. Use the chart for number patterns, place value and written counting. Use the mat for counting 100 physical items, such as buttons, cereal or paper squares, in ten groups of ten. The 100 things project uses the mat; the math block uses the chart. Put them side by side on the 100th day and ask children to match ten objects to one row of ten numbers. That is the bridge between the concrete count and the written number.

Color every second square for even numbers, every fifth square for multiples of five, or every tenth square for the decade numbers. Color the odd numbers one color and the even numbers another, then look at the checkerboard. Color the multiples of three and find the diagonal pattern. Color the numbers with a 7 in them and count how many there are. For a 100th day display, color the chart in a rainbow of ten rows and label each row '10, 20, 30...' The pattern is the lesson: the chart is not a list, it is a map of how numbers fit together.