Decimal place value knowledge - Materials, materials, materials!

Last week our team was fortunate enough to have a tailored session with Jo Knox about about assessing and teaching maths in Year 7 & 8.  While the whole session was very useful the part I found most helpful was Jo's take on teaching decimal place value knowledge.

For my CoL inquiry I'm inquiring into how I can significantly develop the math knowledge of my children. This term I am focussing on developing their decimal place value knowledge.

When I asked Jo how she goes about teaching decimal place value her response was 'Materials, materials, materials' She said using materials such as decipipes, decimats, chocolate bars and bundles of 10 ice block sticks are imperative in developing conceptual decimal understanding.

The idea of using materials to develop decimal knowledge is also supported by NZ Maths which states "In developing an understanding of decimal numbers and their relative size, it is important that the students themselves use equipment to create a range of physical representations of numbers". With this in mind I will be endeavouring to create rich learning experiences using materials. I hypothesis that this combined with rich create activities will develop my children's knowledge of decimal place value and other mathematical concepts. I'll keep you posted on how I get on.