Students operate a school store with school supplies available for sale. Other students, using play money, decide on purchases, pay for them, receive and check on the amount of change. In groups, students each roll a number cube and use dimes to represent the decimal rolled. For example, a student rolling a 4 would take 4 dimes to represent 4 tenths of a dollar. When a student gets 10 dimes, he turns them in for a dollar.
Students use money to represent fractions.
For example, a quarter and a quarter equals half a dollar. Students demonstrate equivalent fractions using pattern blocks. Pattern blocks may also be used to represent addition and subtraction of fractions. Use a variety of mental computation and estimation techniques. Students frequently do warm-up drills that enhance their mental math skills.