Parent Corner: March Ideas
Working with Decimals
Decimals are a part of everyday life that children begin to
learn about in elementary grades. These ideas will help you
practice at home.
Put in Order
Together, make a set of decimal cards, with one decimal per index card (example:
0.25, 0.5, 0.75, 1, 1.25, 1.5, 1.75). Shuffle the cards, and see how quickly your
child can put them in order. Then, while he or she closes his or her eyes, lay them
in order but leave out a few. Give him or her the missing cards, and have him or
her put them where they go. Next, he or she can make a missing-number lineup
for you to figure out.
Round Up or Down
Give your youngster practice rounding decimals to the nearest whole number.
When you’re eating out, have him or her round your bill to help you figure out the
tip. For instance, if the check is $15.38, he or she would round it to $15. If it is
15.78, it would round to $16 (round down for 49 cents and below and up for 50
cents and above). Idea: Challenge him or her to use that number to determine the
tip.
Add Up Prices
Hand a grocery advertisement to your child. Ask him or her to plan his or her
favorite meal and figure out how much the ingredients would cost. He or she
should stack the prices in a column, being sure to line up the decimal points.
Aside from that, adding numbers with decimals is the same as adding any
numbers! Note: For numbers that are less than $1.00, it might help him or her to
place a 0 in the dollar place (for 45 cents, write 0.45).
Science Lab: Make Rain
Watch “rain” form in a jar will help your child understand why it rains outside.
Materials: hot water, ice cubes, clear jar with a metal lid
Directions: Have your child put about an inch of hot tap water into the jar. Next,
he or she should place the lid upside down on the jar and pile ice cubes on top.
Let him or her observe the jar closely.
What happens? Water drops will begin falling from the top of the jar into the
water at the bottom.
Why? As the hot water begins to evaporate, it turns into water vapor (gas) and
rises. When the vapor collides with the ice-cold lid, it cools. That makes it lose
energy, slow down, and turn back into a liquid- as drops of water. This is the
principle of condensation, which is what causes rainy days.