Round Mixed Decimals

Teaching Rounding Mixed Decimals During the 5th grade, students will be introduced to and taught how to round mixed decimals, this is in accordance with the Washington State common core standards (Common Core State Standards for Mathematics, n.d.). This essay will describe how a teacher may teach the students how to round mixed decimals to the nearest tenth and discuss a couple of the difficulties students may experience when learning to round mixed decimals. Before teaching how to round mixed decimals, the students must first possess a few prerequisites. One prerequisite is the ability to round off whole numbers and decimals. The student should have the skill set to understand place value of both whole numbers and decimals with the understanding that rounding can change the amount of a specified value. Another prerequisite is to understand what a decimal is; a decimal is a fraction, and how to read the decimal. Decimals are located on the right side of decimal point, while the whole number is located on the left side. To help the students understand exactly where the tenths are located, the teacher needs to review the place values. Write on the board an example such as: tens, ones, decimal point, tenths, and hundredths. Ask the pupils why there is not a one place value after or to the right of the decimal point.
If it is to the right or left of the decimal point. After establishing the decimal is to the right, ask which number is in the tenth place. The students can circle the number five as a reminder to which is the tenth. The educator should ask the children what number should be looked at to decide if the number five should stay the same or rounded up. This is the step where children may be confused and give the wrong answer. Some of the children may look at the mixed number, 17.54 and decide that the number five should be rounded up because of the seven. This is a common