From: Tim <Tim_Granger@msvl.wednet.edu>
To: Teacher2Teacher Public Discussion
Date: 1999073016:47:38
Subject: How to introduce "thousandth"

	What I have done for all decimal numbers is use grains of rice. Here
is how it would work for dealing with thousandths. I break my students
up into 10 groups and pass out some rice to each group. I then have
each group count out 100 grains and put the rest back into the cup I
passed out. I go ahead and collect the 10 groups of 100 and pour them
into a clear glass. I ask them how many grains of rice are in the cup
total (1,000) and then tell them that we are going to call that group
1 (as in 1 whole). Then I take 1 grain out and color it with a black
marker and show that to the kids. Finally, I place the grain of black
rice into the whole cup again and mix up the rice. 

This leads the kids towards the discussion of the size of the 1 grain
of rice in comparison of the whole cup full of rice. This seems to
give the kids a real concrete example of what 1/1,000 looks like.
Simply change the number of grains total for anyother decimal. Hope
this helps.

Tim

Post a reply to this message
Post a related public discussion message
Ask Teacher2Teacher a new question