Year 6

We understand decimal numbers with up to three places i.e. tenths, hundredths and thousandths and can round and order them

Year 6 Unit 2

What we are learning:

• Decimals can be ‘tricky’. It is vital that children understand the value of each digit, for example 0.125 is equivalent to 1/10 (one tenth) + 2/100 (two hundredths) + 5/1000 (five thousandths)
• Positioning decimal numbers on a number line is a key skill and develops links between numbers
  Ordering decimal numbers
• Place these numbers in order 5.23, 15.3, 5.78, 5.87, 5.2
• Place these numbers in order 7.765, 7.675, 6.765, 7.756, 6.776. These are ‘tricky’ because they all use the same digits in different positions.
• Position these numbers on a number line 5.25, 5.78, 5.67, 5.75, 5.09, 5.17
  What would the range of your number line be?

  
  How would you label each mark on this number line?
  What is the value of each section on this number line?

• We round decimals in the same way that we round whole numbers. We round to a specific number of decimal places.
  For example, if we have 2.43 and wish to round it to one decimal place (it has two decimal places at the moment) we round it down to 2.4. this is because the digit 3 (representing three hundredths) is less than five so we round down. If we wish to round 2.51 to one decimal place it will round up to 2.6

ACTIVITY 1: GREEDY PIG GAME

ACTIVITY SHEETS

Downloads:

Activity sheet: Place value chart for Greedy Pig game PDF

Activity sheet: Spinner PDF

ACTIVITY 2: ORDERING DECIMAL NUMBERS

Activities you can do at home:

• Play the Greedy Pig game. A game for two players
  You will need: A dice or spinner, a play board/chart each
  The aim of the game is to make the largest or smallest number.

  How to play:
  1. Spin the spinner or throw the dice to give you a digit. Take turns
  2. Decide where to place the digit on your board/chart – you can place it on your board or on your partners chart
  3. Remember, the aim is to end with the largest number.
  4. Keep spinning the spinner or throwing the dice to generate digits and placing these on your board/chart until there are no spaces left.
  5. Try to play tactically so that you end up with the biggest number
  6. At the end decide who has the biggest number.
  You can play on more than one board/chart. – you could each have two play boards/charts.

  

Good questions to ask:

Where would be the best place to position this digit? Why?
If you are trying to make the largest number where would you place the digit 9 on the board? Why?
If you are trying to make the smallest number where would you place the digit 0 on the board? Why?

If your child:

Gets confused about the value of digits in numbers with decimal places
Write down a place value chart and ensure that the decimal points always stay vertically in line with each other. Now try writing different numbers onto the chart and compare them / the value of digits in them.
Can reliably place different decimal numbers on a number line in order
Ask them to order numbers without a number line just placing them mentally and to explain how they are doing it. Cross off each number in the random list as it is used.