For many teachers, the go to manipulatives for teaching decimal fractions are MAB blocks and money. Both can confuse rather than support beginners. Complications with MAB include relating the blocks to whole number thinking and modelling decimals using discrete and/or area models. While money is a highly abstract representation, the smallest increment of Australian currency being the 5-cent piece, denying students the ability to build by hundredths (cents) up to the dollar. Further, the physical representation of 1-cent,10-cent and $1 are not proportional. This hands-on workshop will engage participants, as a class of students, approaching their learning of decimals to one, two and three decimal places. The session will model a series of collaborative tasks that have engaged and supported students from Years 4 – 6 to develop a deep conceptual understanding of decimal place value. Participants will explore, structured and unstructured materials commencing with a purely linear model.

Key takeaways:
1. Lesson sequences that build deep understanding.
2. Resources that support conceptual understanding.