Working with Place Value

This is the third part in our three part mini-series on place value and how to use our new Place Value Chart. If you missed the first two, you can read them here and here.

Thanks again to ALEC All-star Janet Hogan for these great examples that come from our professional development work delivering the National Certificate in Adult Literacy and Numeracy Education (otherwise known as the NCALNE).

Understanding the metric system

One of the key understandings learners need to make sense of the metric system is the following fact: There are 1000 millimetres (mm) in 1 metre (m) so 1 millimetre is  of a metre. Use your LiteracyNumeracyPro.com Place Value Chart with your learners to illustrate what these fractions look like as decimals.

Using the Place Value Chart helps reinforces the point that we need to use zero when there are no tenths or hundredths.

Example 1

1 mm is 1/1000 of a metre. We can write this as 0.001m.

Example 2

23 mm is 23/1000 of a metre or 0.023m.

Example 3

456 mm is 456/1000 of a metre or 0.456m.

Example 4

1790 mm is 1790/1000 of a metre or 1.790m.

The WordPress editor won’t let us show the fractions for the examples with the top number sitting on top of the bottom number. However, we’ll make sure that when we release this content as a digital download this will get sorted out.

What else would you like to see to support the teaching of place value? Let us know in the comments.