Greetings 5th Grade Math Families

For the next couple weeks, your student will learn about place value concepts and patterns of numbers as they relate to place value. Your student will explore decimals to the thousandths. He or she will compare, order, and round decimals.

I would greatly appreciate your partnership in bringing these concepts and applications to life at home. 

The vocabulary terms for this chapter are: period, base, exponent, power, thousandth, and thousandths place.

Look for opportunities to talk about decimals. There are large numbers and decimals all around us. Large numbers can be found in population data. Decimals can be found in measurements and prices.

• Populations of communities, towns, cities, and counties can be explored and compared. Help your student find the population of your town, city, or county. Then write the number in word form and expanded form. Compare the population with another city or town.
• Help your student find gas prices for one gallon of gas from three different gas stations in your area. Have your student write each price in word form and expanded form. Ask your student which form he or she prefers to use when comparing the prices.
• Find the results of a local or national race. Compare the finish times of the top three finishers. Round the finish times to the nearest hundredth of a second. Then round the finish times to the nearest tenth of a second. Determine if using rounded times would affect the first, second, and third place winners.

By the end of this chapter, your student should feel confident with place value for whole numbers and decimals. Your student will also be able to compare and round decimals. Encourage your student to practice these skills in the real world.

Enjoy exploring place value and decimals! And thank you for partnering with me to help make the concepts relevant outside of school.  

Best Regards,

Mr. McGinnis