5th graders just wrapped up their unit on adding, subtracting, and comparing fractions! Your children worked so hard on their final test and it showed. This week, we started our next unit on decimals. We began talking about place value, what it means, and we related the different place values to money. We also spent time discussing how these decimal numbers are directly connected to fractions. We showed this by writing out our decimal numbers in expanded form using fractions. Students practiced this by breaking apart decimals  like 0.452 and rewriting it in expanded form: 4/10 + 5/100 + 2/1000 or (4 x 1/10) + (5 x 1/100) + (2 x 1/1000). We also discussed how to represent decimals as fractions using place value (0.452 = 452/1000).

One thing that I am working on as a teacher is creating more challenges for your children when they understand something and feel that it is “too easy”. I always want your child to feel as though they are being challenged and are learning something new. Luckily, I  have so many wonderful MJDS teachers to help me with this. Already, I have learned so much from both the kids and my fellow coworkers and I am slowly figuring out different ways to (hopefully) challenge your children.