This week’s homework is Practice Makes Perfect.
I can multiply and divide by 10, 100 and 1000.
Children have over the past few weeks been practising multiplying by 10, 100 and 1000 during introductions to some of their maths lessons. This homework should consolidate this learning.
The important things to remember:
- When multiplying by 10, move all of the digits one place to the left (so 17.3 x 10 becomes 173).
- When dividing by 10, move all of the digits to the right (so 17.3 ÷ 10 = 1.73).
- We try to avoid saying “just add a zero” because it doesn’t work with decimals like the example given above.
- A somewhat controversial trick is to “move the decimal point”. This is sometimes frowned upon because it doesn’t help children to understand that when multiplying or dividing by 10, you’re actually making the numbers 10 times bigger or smaller. Having said this, if children can understand it, the trick of moving the decimal point might make their calculations easier.
Children will be given a question sheet to practise multiplying and dividing by 10, 100 and 1000.
