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Lesson 1 of 15

One step past the ones column

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5 min

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A pencil tip is at the 4th small tick past 2. How long is the pencil?

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A strip stands for one whole.
Step 1 of 4
  1. A strip stands for one whole.
  2. Cut it into ten equal parts.
  3. Shade three of the parts.
  4. Written as 0.3.

The rule

It is 2.4 units long. Each unit on the ruler has ten small ticks. Count the small ticks past 2. Each tick is one tenth of a unit. A tip at the 4th tick reads 2.4.

Cut one whole into ten equal parts. Each part is a tenth. Ten tenths make one whole.

Tenths sit in their own column, right of the ones column. A dot, the decimal point, separates the two columns.

5 units and 6 tenths is written 5.6. It is also 56 tenths. Check: 5 units are 5 × 10 = 50 tenths, and 50 + 6 = 56.

Reading a length in tenths
Read itWrite itCount of tenths
1 unit and 8 tenths1.818
5 units and 6 tenths5.656
0 units and 3 tenths0.33

Try the lab to finish this lesson.