Less than $5 9th Grade Decimals Activities

These 30 follow me cards are a great way to revise converting recurring decimals as fractions from simple ones such as 0.999 (recurring) through to more complicated ones such as 0.7125252525 (recurring). Play is similar to dominoes, where the cards are placed end to end with the question to the answers, but each question only has one answer. Students connect the questions and answers together forming a chain, with questions steadily getting harder. Students should be expected to not use a calculator.

Some ideas for how to use follow me cards:

• Have students race to connect the cards.
• Have a treasure hunt, around the classroom or outside. Students start with the starter card and record the solutions in the table.
• Students each take ownership of a card, and then get themselves in line correctly with the answers. If there are more than 30 students, assign some students as ‘managers’. If there are less than 30 students, the first students to connect their cards can be given the remaining cards.
• Cut each card in half and give the students a matching activity. They can then glue the answers into their books.
  For an advanced start, begin on page two of the record sheet (the first card number is given).

This is a fun non curricular thinking task that goes beyond just asking students to convert rational numbers to other forms and put them in order. It provides students with an opportunity to think more deeply about the relative sizes of rational and irrational numbers and strategically choose which shapes to place where.

There are many valid approaches and answers to this task so it is a great way to start the year and build a thinking classroom.

This includes both a version made for 5th, 6th, or 7th grade with mixed numbers and decimal side lengths as well as a version for 8th/9th grade which includes square roots as well.

My Other Thinking Classroom Tasks

Non-curricular BTC 4 Points Task

Writing Equations from Tables Thin Slicing Task

Rectangle Area and Perimeter Thinking Problems