Great Lesson Ideas: Games for Decimals with Tiffani Poirier

Poirier: [00:00:00] My name is Tiffani Poirier, and I have an exciting lesson on decimals. What is it? Read it? [00:00:05]

Child: [00:00:06] Four tenths. [00:00:06]

Poirier: [00:00:06] This less is called combining and representing decimals. [00:00:09]

[00:00:11] How many rows did you color Leo? [00:00:12]

Child: [00:00:12] Three. Why? [00:00:12]

Poirier: [00:00:14] Those students are combining decimals together using a representation, and they get to play a game also, so they love that. [00:00:20]

[00:00:21] For this game, it’s called Fill Two. Say that Fill Two. [00:00:22]

Child: [00:00:22] Fill Two. [00:00:23]

Poirier: [00:00:24] What you’re going to do is you’re going to play a game with these 10x10 squares and these little tiny decimal cards. These decimal cards have decimals on them. They have tenths, and they have hundredths on them. Our goal is to turn over the decimal cards. Color in the decimal we have, and then very time we get a new decimal, we’re going to use a new what? A new color. Yes. A new color. [00:00:47]

[00:00:48] Okay so she’s got one-tenth. She’s going to color in one row on her chart. Then we can’t use that card anymore, so we’re going to put it facedown back in the pile. You’re going to keep taking turns like that until you’ve filled up two squares. Once there are filled up and there’s nothing more you can do, you’re going to add all of the decimals that you have together. Then the winner is the person who gets closest to the number two. [00:01:12]

[kids working 00:01:13 – 00:01:26]

Poirier: [00:01:27] To play this game, first I model the game to the students, and then I break them up into partners, and I have them go play. [00:01:33]

[00:01:40] While they’re playing, I walk around and I see what they’re doing and make sure that they understand the difference between the tenths and the hundredths. [00:01:47]

[00:01:46] Is this 7,500? [00:01:47]

Child: [00:01:47] No. [00:01:49]

Poirier: [00:01:48] No so why don’t you get a new paper and why don’t you help him to fill it in, okay? Then you guys can play the game. No that is the game, but he’s not really playing correctly so it’s not really fair. [00:02:01]

[00:02:01] The students had a lot of trouble when looking at the difference between the tenths and hundredths. They see five times as 500 sometimes, so they get confused very often. So the game kind of helps to reinforce that skill. [00:02:12]

[00:02:13] 1,500? That’s 10, though isn’t it? So where’s your [inaudible 02:19] missing them. [00:02:19]

[00:02:20] This lesson is a nice fit into our unit in decimals because the students are recognizing the difference between the tenths and hundredths, and then they’re combining them together, so they’ll be ready when we move on and they can add the decimals together without using the representation. [00:02:33]

[00:02:34] Counting by what? No. Hundreds good, and you wrote it already? Good so whose turn is it? [00:02:42]

[00:02:42] The kids love it because it’s a game, and they get to compete against each other. [00:02:46]

[kids talking 00:02:46 – 02:49]

Poirier: [00:02:49] They love to play and see who wins, or if they have a tie, there’s tiebreaker. [00:02:54]

[kids talking 00:02:54 – 00:03:03]

Poirier: [00:03:04] A lot of my students are English language learners, and it’s helpful to put them into groups because they can use the math vocabulary while they’re conversing with their peers. [00:03:11]

Child: [00:03:12] Use two tenths. Yeah. Okay. Two tenths, you got to count a two. You know you should only use one tenth? I did not do that. [00:03:27]

Poirier: [00:03:28] Clean up all your stuff and then come down, and I’m going to have a couple of groups share how they won. Okay Lisa tell us what you had. [00:03:36]

Child: [00:03:37] Two tenths plus eight-five hundredths, plus 5,000—five hundredths plus three tenths, plus five tenths plus two tenths equals two and two hundredths. [00:03:55]

Poirier: [00:03:56] I think you would love this lesson decimals because the students are learning how to add decimals together using a visual, and they’re also working with partners and having a lot of fun working in groups and talking with each other. [00:04:07]

[kids talking 00:04:07 – 00:04:12]

Poirier: [00:04:12] The resources I’m giving you are the lesson plan, the directions to play the game and everything you need to play the game with your students. [00:04:19]