Representing Numbers Numeracy Assessment: Year 2 supports your students in building strong number sense by assessing their ability to recognise, represent and order numbers up to at least 1000 in a range of forms. This hands-on and engaging resource allows students to demonstrate place value understanding, number flexibility and reasoning using both visual and numerical representations.

This resource has been designed for both formative and summative assessment. It is ideal for classroom instruction, targeted intervention groups, or one-on-one learning conferences. A detailed and editable Australian Curriculum-aligned rubric is included, providing consistency and clarity when observing and recording student achievement. An accompanying answer sheet ensures that marking is efficient and reliable.

Representing Numbers Numeracy Assessment: Year 2 presents students with a series of tasks that highlight their ability to work with numbers in multiple ways. Students begin by examining base-10 models and recording the numbers shown in digit form. They then move on to drawing MAB representations of given numbers—both in standard and non-standard forms—reinforcing flexible number thinking and supporting visual-spatial connections to quantity and structure.

As the tasks progress, students are asked to explain the value of specific digits within larger numbers, showing their understanding of place value and digit significance. They also use digit cards to create the largest and smallest possible numbers, applying logical thinking and number positioning. Finally, students use an additional digit to create the smallest possible 4-digit number and justify their reasoning, offering valuable insight into their depth of understanding.

This assessment is a powerful tool for collecting evidence of student learning during your place value unit or broader number instruction. It not only evaluates standard number representation but also encourages reasoning, justification and verbal explanation—key components in developing confident and capable mathematicians.

Key Learning Outcomes:

• ✅ Recognise and write numbers up to at least 1000
• ✅ Convert base-10 representations to digit form
• ✅ Draw numbers using standard and non-standard MAB formats
• ✅ Explain the value of digits in two-, three- and four-digit numbers
• ✅ Build, compare and manipulate numbers using digit cards

What’s Included:

• Student assessment worksheets with a variety of number representation tasks
• Editable Australian Curriculum-aligned teacher rubric
• Answer sheet to support accurate and efficient marking

Materials Needed:

• Printed assessment worksheets
• Pencils and erasers
• MAB blocks (optional for hands-on support)
• Digit cards or cut-outs for number building tasks

How to Use:

• Begin with a warm-up using physical MAB blocks to review base-10 concepts.
• Guide students through the base-10 to digit translation task, modelling as needed.
• Ask students to draw MABs for a given number, then repeat using a non-standard format.
• Have students explain the value of underlined digits to demonstrate place value understanding.
• Provide digit cards and ask students to form the smallest and largest possible numbers.
• Challenge students to use an additional digit to form a four-digit number and explain their reasoning.
• Use the rubric to assess place value knowledge, number flexibility and reasoning clarity.

Ideas for Classroom Use:

• 💡 Use during a place value unit as a mid-point or final assessment
• 💡 Incorporate into goal-setting sessions or student conferences
• 💡 Add to student portfolios as evidence of number reasoning and representation
• 💡 Implement in small groups for targeted support and observation
• 💡 Use as a pre-assessment to group students for differentiated instruction

Top Teacher Tips:

• 💛 Allow students to use MAB blocks while completing drawing tasks to support visualisation
• 💛 Encourage students to explain their thinking aloud before writing to build oral maths fluency
• 💛 Provide sentence stems to help scaffold reasoning explanations (e.g. “I know this digit is worth…”)
• 💛 Moving Beyond 1000: Challenge confident learners to represent and explain larger numbers
• 💛 Creating Number Stories: Have students write short word problems using the numbers they’ve created to integrate literacy
• 💛 Revisit the assessment later in the term to track growth in number understanding and flexibility

Representing Numbers Numeracy Assessment: Year 2 offers an engaging and in-depth way to explore number knowledge in your classroom. It helps uncover how students visualise, explain and build numbers—key steps in building long-term confidence and skill with place value and number sense.