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Purpose:

  • To give practice in ordering decimal fractions.

You need:

  • 10 – 20 counters
  • A small toy
  • 30 craft sticks
  • Each stick has a decimal fraction in bar or in place value form written on it (for example, 5/10, 3/100 or 0.5, 0.03)

How to play:

  • Lay the sticks facedown so that the fractions cannot be seen.
  • Place the toy and the counters in the middle.
  • When you say ‘GO’ children pick up 5 sticks and order them from smallest to largest.
  • The first one finished grabs the toy and places it beside their sticks.
  • When everyone is finished the child with the toy reads their numbers, for example, 1/100, 3/10, 0.4, 0.6, 9/10.
  • If correct they take 1 counter.
  • The game continues until someone has 3 counters.

Variations:

  • This does not have to be a game. Children can work cooperatively to order the fractions.
  • This can be adapted by using whole numbers 1-30 or larger numbers 1 000 – 10 000 or a mixture of fractions, decimal and percentages.

This has been adapted from a demonstration by a junior class at Maori Hill School.

Download a file of this activity:

PDF (9KB) or Word (28KB)