Fifth Grade Decimals: Looking for some fun ideas

[annettemarie]

I'd love to hear your ideas for learning about decimals in the fifth grade.

[AAK]

Money talks! Seriously, kids seem more interested when it is relevant. And, money is a relevant part of American life. So, I start off using money. Show that 1 penny is .01 or 1/100th of a dollar. The dime is .10 or 1/10th of a dollar. So, now you have the tenths place value and the hundreths place value covered. Show basic operations, with the money available as manipulative. I would only use dimes and pennies though and dollar bills, 10 dollar bills for the whole units. Yes a quarter is the same as two dimes an five pennies, but there isn't a "place value" directly related to it. Bring it in if you want to exemplify fraction/decimal conversions.

Amy

[AngelBee]

[tankgirl73]

Yeah, money is great. Also, Life of Fred books. The first book is Fractions, the second is Percents and Decimals. They are a HOOT, really hilarious.

Definitely do Fractions before Decimals, so you get the whole story.

[annettemarie]

We finished Fractions and are working through Decimals together for this main lesson block. I'm kind of excited to do it with him because they're so funny, LOL!

[annettemarie]

I wanted to share some of the ideas we're going to try this week (besides Life of Fred):

1. Exploring with base ten blocks.
2. I have a Fractions and Decimals game from DK that I bought years ago.
3. Using the newspaper, having a "fractions, decimals, and percentages scavenger hunt" to see how many he can find in a set amount of time.
4. Using the www.mlb.com, looking at baseball stats and how they use decimals. Finding batting averages.
5. Exploring pi