One of my math lessons for place value involves what I've termed 'number island'. The idea is that numbers are like islands...all different sizes and values. I use Snopes' "Birth of an Island" as an attention getting device.
Then we talk about place value, ones, tens, hundreds, etc. Zeros as place holders are rocks to cover sink holes enabling the island to keep its "size/value". Zeros at the two ends of a number (the largest edge or the beach area) fall off/roll down into the ocean.
Whole numbers have no beach. They just plunge into the ocean. Decimals are the beach as part of the whole island, only more precisely valued as tenths, hundredths, etc. Negative numbers could also be brought into this lesson, but I have not developed that portion yet. It wouldn't be hard for the idea that below sea level is where the negative numbers reside. I have no poster for that, but here is the poster for the lesson mentioned above:
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