Decimals

Incorporating games with concepts such as decimals can help encourage students to further their understanding of decimals. These games can be created to practice a variety of concepts, such as comparing, adding, or multiplying decimals. 

The Pros: Most interactive games can offer participation and opportunities to single students, small groups, and large groups. These activities also offer hands-on opportunities to explore decimals, fostering a deeper understanding for these concepts. 

The Cons: In administering large group activities such as this, it leaves room for some students to thrive and advance in these topics, as well as leaving room for some students to fall behind. These activities only work best for some, while confusing others. 

Teaching about place value includes teaching students about numbers in expanded form, picture form, word form, and explaining how each number is represented or valued within its place. 

The Pros: Teaching about place value is a real-world skill that can be used in the future with money, career choices, and more. This also equips students to understand other concepts such as decimals and measurement. This provides a foundation for students to build understanding of decimals, enhances students' number sense, and ultimately prepares them for advanced mathematical skills. 

The Cons: This takes up valuable time of instructional time, and some teachers may not even be able to memorize all the names of the place values. I truly believe that a lot of teachers pull this chart up to remind themselves before and during instruction.