Students use base ten blocks to help them decide how many blocks there would be in eachgroup if they divided 123 blocks among 3 people. The students describe how they used the blocks to help them solve the problem and compare their solutions and solution strategies. Use models to explore operations with fractions and decimals. Students use the base ten models that they are most familiar with for whole numbers and relabel the components with decimal values. Coins, which had represented a whole number of cents, now represent hundredths of dollars.
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.