Display the three relabelled-block sets (two rods, then three hundredth cubes, then a single smallest cube) as pupils settle. Take three hands-up readings, not open call-outs. Confirm each: Set A is 0.2, Set B is 0.03, Set C is 0.001.

0.003 — three thousandths only; stress tenths and hundredths both empty. Ask what is holding those two places open.

0.034 — three hundredths and four thousandths, tenths empty. Read it as such, not 'thirty-four'.

0.207 — two tenths, no hundredths, seven thousandths. The pitfall: say the zero aloud so it isn't read as 0.27. Point at the zero in the hundredths column on screen; drop the zero and it becomes a bigger number.

1.045 — one whole flat, four hundredths, five thousandths, tenths empty. Connect the flat to the whole; the rest fall under the decimal point.

First: ten thousandths regroup into one hundredth. Point as they combine, then state one hundredth is ten thousandths.

Second: ten hundredths regroup into one tenth. Same move, one tenth is ten hundredths.

Say the chain aloud pointing at each: tenth, then hundredth, then thousandth, each one ten times smaller.

Close with the multiplication: whole down to thousandth is three steps, 10 x 10 x 10 = 1000, so one thousandth is a thousand times smaller than one whole.

Build it slowly so they see it, not just hear it, and leave the multiplication for them to rebuild in the maths-talk.

This round is for talking it through together — pupils take turns at the board and the class reads the in-words readout aloud, then agrees or corrects.

Call five or six decimals that stretch the thousandths column and the holding zeros, e.g. 0.006, 0.012, 0.205, 1.030, 0.090, 2.003. After each build, have the class read the in-words readout aloud before you confirm. Watch for pupils dropping a column when there is a zero — pause and ask 'which column is empty here, and what is keeping it open?'

These are the practice questions — pupils take turns at the board, check each answer, and the class confirms before moving on. Keep the board work brisk rather than over-explaining.

The practice set rises in difficulty: 0.008 is a single thousandths build, 1.009 and 2.405 add a whole-number part. Before each build, ask 'which columns are empty here?' For 0.306 say 'three tenths, no hundredths, six thousandths' to head off the read-as-0.36 slip.

Recap the relabelling rule once more before the activity-book practice: same blocks, new values, each ten times smaller than the one before.