Order Decimals

10 min

Narrative

The purpose of this True or False is for students to demonstrate strategies and understandings they have for comparing decimals. These understandings will be valuable when students order decimals later in this lesson. As students discuss and justify their decisions, they share a mathematical claim and the thinking behind it (MP3).

Launch

  • Display one statement.
  • “Give me a signal when you know whether the statement is true and can explain how you know.”
  • 1 minute: quiet think time
Teacher Instructions
  • Share and record answers and strategy.
  • Repeat with each statement.

Student Task

Decide if each statement is true or false. Be prepared to explain your reasoning.

  • 0.909>0.910.909 > 0.91
  • 4.1<4.1004.1 < 4.100
  • 0.99<0.9990.99 < 0.999

Sample Response

  • False: 0.910 is larger because it has a one in the tenths place.
  • False: 4.1 is equal to 4.100.
  • True: 0.99 is equal to 0.990 which is less than 0.999.
Activity Synthesis (Teacher Notes)
  • “Is the statement 0.909>0.910.909 > 0.91 true or false? How do you know?” (False, because 0.909 has 9 tenths and 9 thousandths and 0.91 is 9 tenths and 1 hundredth. 1 hundredth is greater than 9 thousandths.)
  • Display: 0.909 and 0.910
  • “How does writing the numbers like this help to compare them?” (I can see that 0.910 has 10 thousandths compared to 9 for 0.909.)
Standards
Addressing
  • 5.NBT.3.b·Compare two decimals to thousandths based on meanings of the digits in each place, using &gt;, =, and &lt; symbols to record the results of comparisons.
  • 5.NBT.A.3.b·Compare two decimals to thousandths based on meanings of the digits in each place, using <span class="math">\(&gt;\)</span>, =, and <span class="math">\(&lt;\)</span> symbols to record the results of comparisons.

20 min

15 min