Introducing Hundredths

1) Draw a square on the board. Tell the children that you want them to think of that square as one unit.

2) Split the square into ten rectangular sections. Ask them what fraction of the unit each of these sections is worth (i.e. tenths).

3) Now split each of the ten sections into ten squares (there should now be 100 small squares inside the large square). Explain that we can split tenths up even more. The smaller sections are called hundredths.

4) Explain the following concepts:

• There are ten hundredths in one tenths and one hundred hundredths in one unit.
• Hundredths are written to the right of the tenths column when writing numbers in figures, i.e.

• Hundredths are said in the following way:

7.53 = Seven Point Five Three (NOT seven point fifty three)

9.39 = Nine Point Three Nine (NOT nine point thirty nine)

• 4.70 is the same as 4.7. We don’t have to write in the zero, but it is good practice to.

There are five follow-up activities which you might like to try when the children are confident with the above concepts.

A) Identifying Hundredths on a Number Line

This activity is based on worksheet (available below). Children should look at the number line and write in the table the numbers (in fractions and decimals) shown by each letter.

Answers (only shown in decimals) for this worksheet are:

B) Counting Units, Tenths and Hundredths

Children will need to use the activity sheet below and work out the values of the numbers shown in the pictures. Units are indicated by large squares, tenths by rectangles and hundredths by small squares. When they have worked out the value of each picture, they can write the answer (in figures and in words) in their books, or on the answer sheet provided.

Answers:

C) Which is Bigger?

This is a simple exercise which uses the worksheet below. It requires children to look at the pair of numbers in each row and decide which of them is bigger. They can indicate their answer by circling the larger number.

Answers are as follows: (larger numbers are underlined)

D) Sequencing Activity

Another simple exercise, which asks children to put a set of numbers in order (from smallest to largest). It can be found on the worksheet below. The correct answer is:

E) Matching Exercise

This exercise (on the worksheet below) is similar to previous exercises involving tenths (see other pages in the decimals section). Children should fill in the blank spaces on the table, showing how numbers of the same value can be written in different ways. The completed table should look like this:

If the children have completed the previous matching exercises, it is important to remind them that the rows in this table are not in order. The other tables went in numerical order (e.g. 1/10, 2/10, 3/10 etc). The numbers on this table are jumbled.

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