Lesson Ideas

Introduction to Decimals Unit

Here is one of my favorite units that I created this year, my Introduction to Decimals Unit.  We knew that before we asked our students to add, subtract, multiply, and divide decimals that it was essential that they understand what decimals actually represent. To do this we created some lessons where our students used base ten blocks to aid in their understanding of decimals.

The first step of using the base ten blocks is to get students to understand that the flat base ten block is equal to 1 whole, the long equals 1/10 of the whole, and the unit cube equals 1/100 of the whole. You can also show them the block, which equals 10 wholes.  We told our students that the flat was a whole, but we let them determine the value of the other blocks.

The following activities are included in the unit:

• representing a decimal in standard form with base ten blocks, with an illustrated model of the base ten blocks
• representing a decimal in word form with base ten blocks, with an illustrated model of the base ten blocks
• writing equivalents of a decimal with an illustrated model of base ten blocks, fraction form, and word form
• writing equivalents of a decimal with an illustrated model of base ten blocks, fraction form, word form, and expanded form
• comparing decimals through a partner game by creating two decimals with playing cards and modeling the two amounts with illustrations of base ten blocks
• comparing decimals with Decimal War

Here is a preview of a few of the activities: 

 You can buy these activities from my TPT store. I hope you find them as helpful as I did!