The base-ten-frames are great tools for students to use to build deeper understandings of the place value structure using a tool that is familiar and that they (hopefully) used in grades K-2.
The familiarity of these tools are only the beginning. Using these provides students with a deeper understanding of the relationships between decimals.
For instance, a student may create the decimal 2.78 using the base-ten-frames as seen below.
Initially, students often have trouble thinking relationally about decimal numbers. Using tools like these base-ten-frames, the place value structure they have been using with whole numbers becomes as familiar as the tools themselves were at the beginning. Students can use the visible structure and “ten-ness” to answer questions like:
- How many tenths do you need to make a whole? How do you know?
- How many hundredths do you need to make a tenth? How do you know?
- How many tenths and hundredths together do you need to get to 3 wholes? How do you know?
Check out this Meaningful Decimals Lesson I taught with a fifth grade class where I used these base-ten-frames.
The base-ten-frame is a great tool to build this type of relational thinking, focusing on the place-value structure, and magnitude. Download this free resource below. Just fill out the form and I’ll send it right to your inbox!
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