Decimals Place Value

Decimals Place Value (Mat & Smartboard Game)

Helping students with decimals sure does take superhuman powers. There are so many skills involved in providing students with a strong foundational knowledge of decimals.

Research over the last decade has revealed that most students tend to over-generalize mathematical rules. For example, children commonly bring to the study of decimals concepts from their work with whole numbers, such as “division always makes smaller” and “multiplication always makes bigger”. These concepts – though clearly true for whole numbers – lead to misconceptions and confusion with fractional and decimal computations. Another common misunderstanding is that ‘you cannot divide a smaller number by a larger one”.

To provide my kiddos with a concrete understanding of decimals I created a decimal Place value mat. This mat will help them to grasp the difference between whole numbers and parts. Also, students are encouraged to use base ten blocks to model their understanding. 

I always start my lesson with relating decimals to money, this helps students bridge an understanding of their background knowledge of money to decimals. 

Base10 blocks: 
Flat = 1 whole (dollar)
Rod = 1/10 or .1 (dime)
unit = 1/100 or .01 (penny)




I also created a Smartboard Game which helps kids model decimals with base ten blocks. They practice reading & writing decimals in standard, expanded, expanded notation, and word form.



Students also practice comparing and ordering decimals using models and lining up the decimals.


I am so excited about the progress they have made in understanding decimals at a very deep level!