Lesson 5

The purpose of this lesson is for students to use place value understanding to compare decimals to the thousandths place.

In previous lessons, students read and write decimals to the thousandths place. In this lesson, students use place value understanding to compare decimals to the thousandths place. Students may use diagrams, words, or expressions to justify their thinking. Make hundredths grids available for students to use. Students will build on their earlier work with thousandths when they look for a number between 5 and 5.01. In order to find a decimal between these two numbers students will realize that they need a value smaller than a hundredth, motivating them to use the thousandths place and to think of 5 as 5.000 and 5.01 as 5.010.

In what ways did your students apply place value reasoning from previous lessons during the lesson today?