Decimal Activities for Fourth Grade Students

How Can I Help My Fourth Grader Learn Decimals?

For some students, decimals can be challenging because they're less concrete than whole numbers. Before your child begins to work with decimals, make sure he or she fully understands that fractions represent a part of a whole. If necessary, do a quick review session to remind your child about fractions.

Although extra practice through worksheets can be beneficial, activities that use fractions and decimals, such as playing card games or working with money, can be both educational and fun for your child. If your child is having trouble understanding the concept of decimals, it might be best to choose activities that include visual aids.

To calculate the decimal form of fractions, your child will need to divide the numerator by the denominator. For instance, 1/10 = 1 ÷ 10 = 0.10. Improper fractions, like 15/10, represent numbers that are greater than one; your child should use the same method of dividing the numerator (15) by the denominator (10) to determine the decimal. In this case, divide 15 ÷ 10, which equals 1.5.

Activities by Concept

Visuals

Divide a piece of licorice into ten equal parts. Then, ask your child to use the licorice to represent various decimals, for instance, 0.60. Your child will first need to figure out that 0.60 is the same as the fraction 6/10. Using the licorice, your child should remove four of the pieces, so that only six of the original ten remain.

Card Game

On one card, write a fraction. On another, write the equivalent decimal. Flip the cards upside down on a table, and organize them into rows. Then, have your child flip over two cards. If he or she gets a matching fraction and decimal, your child keeps the pair. If not, he or she must flip the cards back over and try again. Have your child continue playing until he or she has matched up all the pairs of fractions and decimals. You can join in this game as well by alternating turns with your child; whoever makes the most matches is the winner.

Money

Comparing decimals can be challenging for some students because it can be hard for them to contextualize. However, since students of this age are familiar with increments of money, you can use coins to help your child understand comparison of decimals. For instance, you might ask your child which is greater, $0.25 or $0.75?

For a challenge, ask your child to translate decimals back into fractions using money. For example, $0.40 can be rewritten as the fraction 40/100, which can be reduced to 2/5. So, $0.40 is 2/5 of a dollar.