Beginning Decimals

Beginning Decimals: Understanding TENTHS

Understanding decimals can be a little painful but it helps to remember what we already know fractions. You got this!

So, where to begin...

• FIRST of all, its important to understand that DECIMALS and FRACTIONS are basically the SAME THING! They both are used to show amounts that are less than 1 whole but greater than ZERO!

• SECOND of all, READING a DECIMAL number is a lot like reading a normal number: You have to pay attention to the PLACE VALUE!

Let's remember some basic stuff about FRACTIONS...

• Fractions have a number on the top and a number on the bottom, RIGHT?

• Well, what is the number on the top called?

• What is the number on the bottom called?

• What does each number tell us about the amount it represent?

Multiple Choice

The number on the top is called the...

• DENOMINATOR

• NUMINATOR

• DEMONITATER

• NUMERATOR

Multiple Choice

The number on the bottom is called the...

• NOMINATOR

• DENOMINATOR

• NUMBERATOR

• DESTROYER

Multiple Choice

The number on the top tells us...

• How many pieces the whole is cut into.

• How many pieces were are paying attention to.

• How big each of the pieces are.

• How many of those pieces it takes to make a whole.

Multiple Select

The number on the bottom tells us...

• How many pieces the whole is cut into.

• How many pieces we are paying attention to.

• How big each of the pieces are.

• How many of those pieces it would take to make a whole.

What did you remember?

• You remembered that the number on top is the NUMERATOR.

• You also remembered that the number on the bottom is called the DENOMINATOR.

• You remembered that the NUMERATOR tells us how many pieces we are paying attention to.

• And finally, you remembered that the DENOMINATOR tells you a few things: how many of those pieces it takes to make a whole, or put another way, how many piece the whole is cut into, AND how big those pieces are!

• WHEW!

Now let's start talking about DECIMALS...

• The prefix "deci-" means "to split into 10"

• We call the first place to the RIGHT of the DECIMAL "TENTHS"

• We call the next place to the right "HUNDREDTHS"

• After that, we have "THOUSANDTHS", "TEN THOUSANDTHS", "HUNDRED THOUSANDTHS"......

• Each place the right is 10 TIMES SMALLER than its neighbor to the left!

• Watch the following video to get some practice recognizing TENTHS!

Think ya got TENTHS figured out?

Take the quiz titled "Understanding TENTHS" to find out!