Grade Levels: 3-5, 6-8

*Click to open and customize your own copy of the Decimals Lesson Plan

This lesson accompanies the BrainPOP topic Decimals, and supports the standard of reading, writing, and comparing decimals. Students demonstrate understanding through a variety of projects.

Step 1: ACTIVATE PRIOR KNOWLEDGE

Show students an image of a price tag or a receipt with a decimal like the following, or a real price tag on something you bring in or that’s in the classroom. Point to the decimal and ask them what it is.


Step 2: BUILD KNOWLEDGE

  • Read the description on the Decimals topic page.
  • Play the Movie, pausing to check for understanding. 
  • Have students read one of the three Related Reading articles. Partner them with someone who read a different article to share what they learned with each other.

Step 3: APPLY and ASSESS 

Students take the Decimals Challenge and Quiz, applying essential literacy skills while demonstrating what they learned about this topic.

Step 4: DEEPEN and EXTEND

Students express what they learned about decimals while practicing essential literacy skills with one or more of the following activities. Differentiate by assigning ones that meet individual student needs.

  • Make-a-Movie: Create a newscast reporting on a race. Compare the runners’ scores to the nearest hundredth of a second, and answer this question: Who came in first, second, third, and fourth places?
  • Make-a-Map: Make a concept map identifying steps to comparing prices at the grocery store. 
  • Creative Coding: Code a word problem involving decimals, and challenge a classmate to solve it. 
  • Primary Source Activity: Analyze a baseball card, and use the information to answer accompanying questions. 

More to Explore

Monster School Bus: Practice working with decimals by playing an interactive decimal combination game.

Related BrainPOP Topics: Deepen understanding of decimals with these related BrainPOP topics: Converting Fractions to Decimals, Multiplying Decimals, and Dividing Decimals.

Teacher Support Resources:

 

Lesson Plan Common Core State Standards Alignments