One of the key math concepts in fourth grade is placing fractions and decimals on a number line. It helps to have a strong visual model the students can manipulate. I realized that I already had a class set of number lines I could use for the activity: meter sticks.
Meter sticks are a way of representing tenths, hundredths and thousandths. One meter stick is the whole. Each decimeter is a tenth, each centimeter is a hundredth, and each millimeter is a thousandth.
(You can purchase 12 meter sticks by clicking the affiliate link below.)
I started with modeling half. Students could visually see that I had marked half way across the stick. Fourth graders know that 50 is half of 100 so the clothespin marked the 50 cm point.
Next, I marked the tenths. On one side of the clothespins I have tenths in fraction form. On the other side I marked the equivalent decimal.
I made additional clothespins with fifths, fourths, and eighths. On the other side of each I marked the equivalent fractions. I am using this tool as an independent station for some students and an intervention for others.
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