Explore Place Value Relationships
10 min
Narrative
The purpose of this Warm-up is for students to recognize that a balance shows when two weights are equal. This will be useful when students look at weights representing the different decimal place values, providing students with a concrete way to think about the meaning of the digits in a decimal number and the multiplicative relationships between the place values (MP7). The weights will also be used to connect the word form of a decimal number to thousandths and the decimal form.
Launch
- Groups of 2
- Display the image.
- “What do you notice? What do you wonder?”
- 1 minute: quiet think time
Teacher Instructions
- “Discuss your thinking with your partner.”
- 1 minute: partner discussion
- Share and record responses.
Student Task
What do you notice? What do you wonder?
Sample Response
Students may notice:
- There is a scale with weights.
- There is only one weight on the left.
- There are a lot of weights on the right.
- The balance says that the weights on the left and right are equal.
- Ten 0.001s is equal to 0.01.
Students may wonder:
- What are the objects on the balance?
- Do the numbers represent weights?
- How does a balance work?
- What will happen if I take off a weight on one side?
Activity Synthesis (Teacher Notes)
- “Each of the smaller weights weigh 0.001 of an ounce. The larger weight weighs one hundredth of an ounce. If there were 20 weights that each weighed 0.001 of an ounce on one side, what would need to be on the other side to stay balanced?” (2 hundredths, 1 hundredth and 10 thousandths, 20 thousandths)
Standards
Addressing
- 5.NBT.3·Read, write, and compare decimals to thousandths.
- 5.NBT.A.3·Read, write, and compare decimals to thousandths.
15 min
10 min
10 min
Knowledge Components
All skills for this lesson
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Explore Place Value Relationships
10 min
Narrative
The purpose of this Warm-up is for students to recognize that a balance shows when two weights are equal. This will be useful when students look at weights representing the different decimal place values, providing students with a concrete way to think about the meaning of the digits in a decimal number and the multiplicative relationships between the place values (MP7). The weights will also be used to connect the word form of a decimal number to thousandths and the decimal form.
Launch
- Groups of 2
- Display the image.
- “What do you notice? What do you wonder?”
- 1 minute: quiet think time
Teacher Instructions
- “Discuss your thinking with your partner.”
- 1 minute: partner discussion
- Share and record responses.
Student Task
What do you notice? What do you wonder?
Sample Response
Students may notice:
- There is a scale with weights.
- There is only one weight on the left.
- There are a lot of weights on the right.
- The balance says that the weights on the left and right are equal.
- Ten 0.001s is equal to 0.01.
Students may wonder:
- What are the objects on the balance?
- Do the numbers represent weights?
- How does a balance work?
- What will happen if I take off a weight on one side?
Activity Synthesis (Teacher Notes)
- “Each of the smaller weights weigh 0.001 of an ounce. The larger weight weighs one hundredth of an ounce. If there were 20 weights that each weighed 0.001 of an ounce on one side, what would need to be on the other side to stay balanced?” (2 hundredths, 1 hundredth and 10 thousandths, 20 thousandths)
Standards
Addressing
- 5.NBT.3·Read, write, and compare decimals to thousandths.
- 5.NBT.A.3·Read, write, and compare decimals to thousandths.