Kids have to practice the terminology and work with the concepts until they are fluent with them. Resources for Teaching Place ValueĪs with most math concepts, it’s not enough to introduce them with hands-on materials and then move on to the next lesson. Students can also see that each place to the left is 10 times greater than the one on its right. All of those ways to express decimals are much more easily viewed when looking at a mat such as the one below. The expanded form of this number could also be expressed as 20 + 4 + 6/10 + 9/100 or completely broken down to 20 + 4 + 6 x (1/10) + 9 x (1/100). For example, it’s easy to see that the number on the mat can be written as 20 + 4 + 0.6 + 0.09 because students can see each place represented with physical objects. After you check to be sure they represented the number properly on the mat, ask students to write the word name and expanded form.Įxpanded form is particularly difficult when representing decimals, and using base 10 manipulatives seems to help illustrate the concept. You can make up your own numbers or use the Build a Decimal Task Cards provided in the freebie. If they cut those 10 slices into 10 parts, each part was 1/100 or 0.01 of the whole.Īfter you introduce the value of each base 10 piece, guide your students through an activity I call “Build a Decimal.” Start by writing a decimal in standard form on the board and asking students work to with their teams to “build” that number on the team mat. I explained that even though they had been taught that the “flat” was equal to 100, I wanted them to think of it as one whole… maybe one whole cake for a family of mice! If they sliced the cake into 10 parts, each part was 1/10 or 0.1. Introduce each piece and explain how it represents a particular decimal place. Ask your students to divide up the materials so that one person has the cubes, one has the flats, one has the rods, and one has the units. It’s best if each student has a dry erase board and marker, too. Seat your students in teams of four and give each team one set of base 10 manipulatives. Or you can print the patterns in my Build a Number freebie to create the place value mat on 2 sheets of 8.5″ by 11″ paper.
Use a dry erase marker to draw a decimal point between the ones place and the tenths place. To create mats like the ones I used in my lesson, draw the 4-column chart above on a large sheet of heavy paper (18″ x 24″) and laminate it. I found that it’s really important to create a place value mat (like the one shown above) for these lessons because it helps students remember what place is represented by each model. When introducing decimals, you can use the cubes to represent tens, the flats to represent ones, the rods for tenths, and the units for hundredths.
#BASE TEN BLOCKS GAME HOW TO#
Be sure to download the freebie that goes with this lesson! How to Introduce Decimals, Step by Step Kids have to understand that each place to the left is 10 times the size of the place to the right, and base 10 blocks are the best way to explore that concept. Primary teachers often use them to introduce whole numbers, but base 10 blocks are also effective with upper elementary students when exploring decimals. Whether you’re introducing whole number concepts or decimal place value, it’s important to start at the concrete level, and base 10 blocks work perfectly because they are sized according to their value.Įven 5th graders aren’t too old for base 10 blocks. Understanding place value is essential to developing a solid foundation of mathematical understanding. There’s a reason math teachers start the year by introducing or reviewing place value concepts.
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