Once children have a really good knowledge of ‘tables’ and understand place value they can apply this knowledge in all sorts of ways. One way is to mentally calculate division with decimals.
16 divided by 2 is easy: 8
1.6 divided by 2 can cause all sorts of problems, but, of course is 0.8.
When I try to do a question such as 2.5 divided by 5 I mentally calculate 25 divided by 5 and then divide the answer by 10 ‘in my head’ by moving each number one place to the right. There are other ways but this seems quite efficient.
It is harder when faced with a question such as 1.8 divided by what makes 0.2? Again, if both numbers are multiplied by 10 it becomes 18 divided by what makes 2, which is easy: 9.
This Year 6 maths worksheet on division with decimals is a good test of how well children can manipulate numbers and use their knowledge.
- Free Year 6 Maths Worksheets
- © 2009 Maths Blog