Place Value of Decimals to Thousandths

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1 Getting Started
2 Watch and Notice
3 Try It Together
4 Sketch the Columns in Your Copy
5 Class Challenge
6 What Did We Notice?
7 What's Next
Pupil practice

1 - Getting Started ~4 mins

Illustration for Getting Started Look at this number written on the board: 0.001.

How many of these tiny amounts do you think we would need to make one whole? And how could we be sure we are right?

Write 0.001 on the IWB and give five seconds of quiet think-time before any hands go up. Take three hands-up answers, not open call-outs.

Listen for pupils who reason from the column name (thousandths, so a thousand of them) rather than guessing a round number. Revoice a strong answer: so it takes a thousand thousandths to make one whole, the same way it takes a thousand units to make a thousand.

👇 Mark your steps as done as you complete them.

+5 XP

2 - Watch and Notice ~9 mins

Each chart shows a number with its digits already placed in the columns: units, tenths, hundredths, thousandths. Notice which column every digit is in, and keep an eye on any zeros.

Teacher Notes

0.4 — four tenths, nothing else; ask where the 4 sits. Name the tenths column, other decimal columns empty.

0.27 — two tenths, seven hundredths; one column further right into hundredths.

0.305 — pause on the zero in hundredths. Ask what that zero is doing there before revealing it holds the place so the 5 stays in thousandths.

2.408 — whole number and decimal together: two units, four tenths, no hundredths, eight thousandths. Read it as two and four hundred and eight thousandths.

👇 Mark your steps as done as you complete them.

+10 XP

3 - Try It Together ~11 mins

Today we build decimals together on the place-value chart. The columns are units, tenths, hundredths and thousandths. When a number is called, we place each digit in its column and then read the whole decimal back aloud, checking each column as we go.

Build the called decimal

Teacher Notes

This round is for talking it through together — pupils take turns at the board and the class agrees or corrects out loud.

Call a decimal (start with 0.6, then 0.38, then 0.207, then 1.504), have an individual pupil build it on the chart in decimal mode, and ask the class to check the live readout column by column before reading the whole number aloud.

Watch for the embedded-zero slip on 0.207 — pupils often skip the empty hundredths column and write 0.27 instead. Revoice: the zero is doing a job, it is holding the hundredths place so the 7 stays in thousandths.

+15 XP

4 - Sketch the Columns in Your Copy ~2 mins

COPYBOOK MOMENT

Illustration for Sketch the Columns in Your Copy In your maths copy, sketch four columns and label them U, t, h, th. Then write each of these decimals into the columns, one under the other, and underline the thousandths digit where there is one.

0.4
0.27
0.305
2.408

Teacher Notes

Walk the room glancing at column labels and alignment, and check that the empty columns in 0.4 and 0.305 are left blank rather than skipped. No marking — this is whole-class copybook practice, not assessment.

+10 XP

5 - Class Challenge ~8 mins

Today we build decimals with place-value blocks. The columns are still units, tenths, hundredths and thousandths, but each digit is that many blocks in its column. An empty column means zero blocks there, and the zero holds the place.

Work one together first: 0.305.

3 blocks in the tenths column
no blocks in the hundredths column (the zero holds this place)
5 blocks in the thousandths column

Check the live total reads 0.305, then say it aloud: three tenths and five thousandths.

Now build these on the interactive and press Check: 0.006, then 0.05, then 0.408, then 1.207, then 3.09. The zeros catch people out, so say each one aloud before you check.

Build the decimal

Teacher Notes

Before the challenge list, model 0.305 end to end on the interactive: add 3 tenths blocks, leave hundredths empty, add 5 thousandths blocks. Point to the live total and the in-words readout. Revoice: the empty hundredths column is the zero, it keeps the 5 in thousandths.

Then run the five challenges. Pupils take turns at the board, class confirms before Check. Keep the board work brisk.

Each target steps up the zero-trap: 0.006 (only thousandths), 0.05 (only hundredths), 0.408 (zero hundredths), 1.207 (zero hundredths with a whole number), 3.09 (nine hundredths, no thousandths). For each one ask what is tricky about the zeros here? before Check.

Watch for: five tenths blocks for 0.05 (that is 0.5), or skipping an empty column and shifting digits left so thousandths land in hundredths.

+15 XP

6 - What Did We Notice? ~3 mins

MATHS TALK

First we will prove the ten-times pattern with one clear example on the board.

We write 0.10 and 0.1 in the place-value columns side by side, count that ten hundredths make one tenth, and check they are the same amount. Then we name the same pattern one step further: ten thousandths make one hundredth.

After that, talk about these two questions:

Why is each column to the right ten times smaller than the one before it?

And here is one to just talk about, with no right answer to find: what do you think would change about our chart if each column were a hundred times smaller instead of ten?

Teacher Notes

Work one proof on the board before any talk.

1. Draw columns U t h th. Write 0.10 (1 in tenths, 0 in hundredths) and beside it 0.1 (1 in tenths only).

2. Count aloud: ten hundredths fill the hundredths column and bundle to one tenth, so 0.10 = 0.1.

3. Point one step right and state the match: ten thousandths = one hundredth (show 0.010 = 0.01 if helpful).

Slip to watch: pupils who say the digits look different so the values must differ, revoice that the zero is only holding place.

Then open the why-question. Listen for links back to whole-number columns, same ten-times pattern running the other way. Revoice: so the pattern never stops, it just keeps shrinking by ten each step.

The hundred-times-smaller question is a what-if to stretch reasoning, not a new rule, let pupils argue it out and head off any who think it would simply skip a column.

+10 XP

7 - What's Next ~3 mins

What we learned today

The three columns to the right of the point are tenths, hundredths and thousandths.
Each column to the right is ten times smaller than the one before it.
A zero in a decimal column holds the place so the other digits stay in their correct columns.

Coming up

Next we will use base-ten blocks to model thousandths, so you can see and hold how much smaller each column really gets.

Teacher Notes

Recap the three column names in order, then preview the block-modelling lesson. Keep this brief.

+5 XP

Pupil practice

Module 1 · Place Value, Decimals and the Number System Number

Lesson 2 · Place Value of Decimals to Thousandths

Download Activity Book page (PDF)

End of lesson

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This lesson is copyright of Coding Ireland 2017 - 2025. Unauthorised use, copying or distribution is not allowed.

Teacher Class Feed

1 - Getting Started ~4 mins

2 - Watch and Notice ~9 mins

3 - Try It Together ~11 mins

Build the called decimal

4 - Sketch the Columns in Your Copy ~2 mins

5 - Class Challenge ~8 mins

Build the decimal

6 - What Did We Notice? ~3 mins

7 - What's Next ~3 mins

What we learned today

Coming up

Unlock the full learning experience

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