Sometimes students don't see how decimals are related to their own lives, so use money to show them a real-world application of adding decimals. Give them catalogs or sales flyers that have prices of items listed, and tell them they have a given amount of money to spend on a certain number of items. For example, they can spend $50 on 3 items. Students will search through the catalogs and flyers and cut out pictures of items, glue them on a large piece of paper, and label the price of each item. They will then add up the price of each item to find their totals and write them on their papers.
Some students have trouble understanding decimals because they are unable to picture what the numbers mean. Make it visual for them by representing decimals with grid paper. Give each student a piece of 10-by-10 grid paper and have them count the total number of squares, which is 100. Shade one row of 10 and show them how it represents 1/10 or 0.1. Then shade only one square, representing 1/100 or 0.01. Invite students to represent other decimals on their grid papers by shading the correct amounts. For example, call out a decimal such as 0.34 and students will shade 3 rows and 4 additional squares.
It is also important for students to understand how decimals and fractions are related. To practice this skill, play a bingo game. Prepare bingo cards labeled with decimals such as 0.25, 0.33, 0.50, or 0.75 and pass them out to each student. To play the game, call out fractions that are equal to the decimals that are found on the bingo cards. For example, if the fraction 1/4 is called, students would cover the space labeled with 0.25. The game can also be played with fractions on the bingo cards as the teacher calls out decimals.
When working on comparing and ordering decimals, play a high-low game. One student writes a decimal on a paper and hides it from the other game player. The second student guesses a number and the first player must tell him if the secret number is higher or lower than the one he guessed. For example, if the secret decimal is 0.7, and the player guesses 0.3, the first student would say "higher." The student continues to guess numbers, further narrowing the guesses with each clue of higher or lower until they have found the secret decimal number. Then players can switch roles to play again.