What a lovely Sunday it has been. The sun is out, the washing is dry and the Giants are leading 3 to zip in the World Series – Yahoo! My Grandma hasn’t been travelling so well lately and at the age of 95 is an avid Giants fan, so I hope they can do it for her! She either mentions the Giants or the Niners in every letter she writes to me! Go Giants!
Anyway, to more important news (as many of you may see it!)…. As our Mental Maths book has become harder, the children have begun to be exposed to millions and hundredths. They have dabbled in millions all year, wanting “Wow’s” by saying BIG numbers, but never really understood the concept. My teaching partner came up with this idea and I turned it into an activity for us to make as a reference.
The Number Caterpillar
First we used a ten sided dice and rolled 9 numbers and placed in different circles on the worksheet. Each circle is slightly smaller than the circle before it!
Then we cut it out and made a caterpillar. I was going to laminate them to put them on their tables, but they ended up way to big (60cm long) so I am going to put them on display in the classroom for children to refer to.
We are also having to work with decimals and fractions a lot more. So I included this caterpillar activity in my new Decimals and Fractions – Making Connections booklet. Also included in this book is a decimals number expander for tenths and hundredths! Here is a sneak peek…. 37 pages in total with full explanations.
You can download it here on Teachers Pay Teachers
Enjoy the rest of your weekend and have a great week inspiring young minds.
Alison, that is such a cute activity but actually really explains how big and small the parts of numbers are. I love it, fractions and decimals is something I struggle to teach, so that pack is on my wishlist.
Tania
Mrs Poultney's Ponderings
Thanks Tania! I seem to be having lots of "ah hah" moments at the moment with place value – they think they get it, but something as simple as this activity can make them really get it! Thanks for the comment!
Alison
I'll be putting your pack on my wishlist too – we haven't got to decimals yet, but I imagine it can't be too far away. ( I haven't checked but it may be in next years work ).
The Paper Maid
I teach my remedial math college students that "A fraction is a decimal is a percent is a ratio." I even have a hand clap that goes with it. Why do teachers even think of teaching them separately when they are all the same thing?