my2boysteacher Posted January 23, 2012 Share Posted January 23, 2012 (edited) I'm having a hard time teaching him division of decimals such as: 1 / .04 We are using MM5, and I for the first time we are finding her explanation lacking. He thinks that since you are dividing, the answer has to be less than one. I'm having a hard time 'showing' this, as I'm not a visual person. Does anyone have any resources- websites, books, hands on manips, that might help him understand this? Thanks! ETA: NOT using long division Edited January 23, 2012 by my2boysteacher Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChrissySC Posted January 23, 2012 Share Posted January 23, 2012 Does he understand that .04 is 4/100 ? Does he understand the underlying fraction concepts ...that it is 4 parts of a whole that is divided into 100 parts? Try Khan Academy for videos. :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
my2boysteacher Posted January 23, 2012 Author Share Posted January 23, 2012 Does he understand that .04 is 4/100 ? Does he understand the underlying fraction concepts ...that it is 4 parts of a whole that is divided into 100 parts? Try Khan Academy for videos. :) That is an excellent point. Maybe we'll skip decimals and move on to fractions, and revisit decimals later. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wapiti Posted January 23, 2012 Share Posted January 23, 2012 FWIW, I love love love MM5, and wouldn't trade it for anything, but this is the one lesson that I had a problem with. So, no, you're not crazy. (I'm sorry I don't remember how I ended up teaching it.) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
my2boysteacher Posted January 23, 2012 Author Share Posted January 23, 2012 FWIW, I love love love MM5, and wouldn't trade it for anything, but this is the one lesson that I had a problem with. So, no, you're not crazy. (I'm sorry I don't remember how I ended up teaching it.) Thanks for sharing, that is good to know. I was worried maybe he was going to 'hit a wall' at this point, but I think we'll move on and try not to worry about it. Up until now, the directions have been so good, I kept looking back in the text thinking I must have missed a page that explains how to do it. :lol: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Momling Posted January 23, 2012 Share Posted January 23, 2012 You might want to re-word it to be "how many 0.4s are in 1?" Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ErinE Posted January 23, 2012 Share Posted January 23, 2012 You might want to re-word it to be "how many 0.04s are in 1?" What Momling said. You can create scraps of paper with "0.04" on them and count up to 1. This way your student can see the number of 0.04s required to make 1. I would keep a running tally: 0.04, 0.08, 0.12, 0.16, until you reach 1.00. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
almondbutterandjelly Posted January 23, 2012 Share Posted January 23, 2012 Do you have unit blocks (like the green ones from Mathusee) and a 100 block (like the big red square from Mathusee)? Call the red block "1" and use 4 green blocks as the .04. How many of those groups of 4 unit blocks can fit into the 1 big red block? Or use a dollar bill as one and use four pennies as .04. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
my2boysteacher Posted January 23, 2012 Author Share Posted January 23, 2012 We tried 'how many .04s are in 1', but that didn't help. I love the scrap of paper and the money idea. We'll try those tomorrow. Thanks everyone! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Momling Posted January 24, 2012 Share Posted January 24, 2012 What Momling said. You can create scraps of paper with "0.04" on them and count up to 1. This way your student can see the number of 0.04s required to make 1. I would keep a running tally: 0.04, 0.08, 0.12, 0.16, until you reach 1.00. Errr... yeah! What ErinE said... :001_smile: (I wasn't paying attention to the actual numbers...) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
armom Posted January 24, 2012 Share Posted January 24, 2012 Definitely think fractions should come before decimals/percents. Several math programs I have seen this is their sequence. We you MUS and like the blocks. They don't use them everyday, but each new lesson if they aren't getting it, we use the blocks, fraction overlay and they are able to visualize the problem. This helps a tremendous amount for my children. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChrissySC Posted January 24, 2012 Share Posted January 24, 2012 MM does teach this way, but it is in MM4 and not MM5 that you see this sequence for learning. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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