Give five seconds of quiet think-time, then take three hands-up answers, not open call-outs. Don't confirm the right answer yet — that lands in Watch and Notice. Listen for who counts zeros confidently and who guesses.

Walk each example aloud, one at a time, letting the chart place each digit so the class sees the columns fill rather than just reads a finished number.

• 2,408,000 — as the three zeros at the right go in, ask what each one is holding open before you name the whole number.
• 1,050,607 — read it slowly column by column as it builds so the scattered zeros are heard, not skipped.
• 7,000,090 — pause on the empty columns and have the class say 'no hundred-thousands, no ten-thousands, no thousands' aloud.
• 9,999,999 — trace the two commas and name the three groups: millions, thousands, units.

The big idea to land: a comma every three digits from the right tells you where the millions and thousands groups begin.

This round is for talking it through together — a pupil builds at the board and the watching class agrees with a thumbs-up or answers when you ask.

Call one number at a time and have a pupil build it on the chart. Before reading the whole number, ask the class to name every empty column ('no thousands here'), and after each build pose a quick question to a seated pupil and revoice their answer so the back rows stay with it. Watch for the common slip of reading 3,072,000 as 'three million, seventy-two' instead of 'three million and seventy-two thousand' — the thousands group is the catch.

This round is the practice bank — a pupil builds each target at the board, the class names the empty columns aloud first, then we check and confirm before moving on. Keep the board work brisk rather than over-explaining.

For each target, ask the whole class 'what is tricky about the zeros here?' before a pupil builds it: in 2,305,072 the zeros sit across several columns; in 9,008,040 there are zeros holding open four separate columns. Use the Check tick as part of your narration — 'yes, that's it.' Begin everyone on the first target and bring the strongest builders to 9,008,040.

Keep this brisk — a 60-second recap of the three bullets. Flag the bridge to decimals so the next lesson feels connected: the same ten-times rule, just going smaller.