Decimal Places and Rounding

Whether you are six years-old or a sixty-six years-old, place value and especially those with decimals can be quite annoying and unnatural to work with. There are many sources on the web to help with remembering place value and truly mastering it. The following video is fun and would be a great way to get students out of their seats and interactive while teaching this concept. I also asked around to some of my own sources (for instance-my sister, the "math specialist" teacher). ;) She highly recommended this arrow card site as it really gives students the opportunity to create their own numbers and manipulatives while working on place value.

When working on adding or subtracting it is sometimes difficult for students to remember to line the numbers or decimals up correctly. It then becomes even more confusing when multiplying and dividing because they don't always have to be lined up in special ways as long as the end result is in the correct format. I also really enjoy the breakdown of this video to help introduce the decimal places and the value of each place. It would likely be geared more toward 5th or 6th grade students (even though it is a little juvenile), but definitely beneficial. Remembering the difference between terms like tens and tenths, can be difficult.

The www.decimalsquares.com/dsGames/ website has an activity called Place Value Strategy where students can spin a wheel and place a number in the tenths, hundredths, thousandths and ten thousandths place with a goal to make the largest number out of those spun. Students could play this against the computer or they can play with a friend. It would be fun to see how different ages might use different strategies to make the larger number. In many cases it can be frustrating trying to remember the correct place value of decimals, fractions and percentages. One activity that I have found on the web that students can use to help them learn and remember the correct place on the number line is this equivalence activity. It does not allow students to place the number, fraction or decimal on the incorrect place value so students can see their errors immediately and correct them.