CLE Math, grade 5 – place value

Karen below is my friend’s response.  I am sorry that it isn’t quite the answer we were hoping for…jo

My daughter just finished MA 502-3 the other day.  Since I do not purchase the teacher manuals or have not looked at them past first grade, I did not see that I was recommended to use a candy bar to illustrate place value.  I have always used money to illustrate place value. 

My kids don’t have their hands on money that often, but they do understand what a penny, dime, and dollar are and what they are worth.  When working with place value, I almost always make reference to money.  There is a difference between 5.02 and 5.20 when it comes to money, so where you place the numbers in a decimal is important.  I also teach that 5.2 is the same as  $5.20.  It is like saying that the 2 is how many dimes you have.  You need ten dimes to make a dollar or ten groups of ten to make a hundred.  Since the place value right after the decimal is talking about dimes, we call this tenths.  Two places after the decimal is talking about pennies.  How many pennies do I have in $5.26?  6.  We need 100 pennies to make a dollar, so that place value is called hundredths.  Since we don’t deal with thousandths place value when dealing with money, that one is just going to have to be figured out on their own as long as they understand the tenths and hundredths place. 

Also, recognizing that 5.2 is the same as 5.20 is the same as 5.200 is the same as 5. 2000 is tough for a lot of kids.  They see what looks like a big number, and therefore it has to be different/bigger.  There are illustrations and lessons in the lightunit on this concept using a ruler, but sometimes kids just have to fight it till it clicks. 

When my kids were first learning decimals, I taught that is was okay to say, “five point two,” when reading 5.2.  Now I am insisting that there is a different way that I want them to learn and read decimals.  It is saying tenths, hundredths, thousandths, etc when we talk about what comes after the decimal.  It is still the concept of five ‘wholes’ and two ‘parts of a whole’, but now we are using different words to describe where those numbers are and what they represent. 

Hope some of this helps.  Remember, it is very normal to teach and reteach this concept of place value with decimals.  It doesn’t catch on right away despite my best efforts and making it as simple and understandable as possible.  I have kids who like to make things more complicated.  I keep telling them to make things simpler and enjoy life and enjoy math, etc.