Are you struggling with showing your students how to multiply and divide decimals by powers of 10? Do they try to use the standard algorithm to solve these even though they don't really need to?

This skill is much easier to teach if you can show them with a more visual, hands-on approach.

I've used two strategies to teach this skill:

Move the digits in a place value chart

Move the decimal point

I have found that moving the digits in a place value chart does the best job of showing how the digits are increasing or decreasing in value as you multiply or divide them by powers of 10.

Once your students understand the concept, you can show them the strategy of moving the decimal point, which shifts the digits in the opposite direction.

The image had 3 photos - the first and third are of a document shown on a smartboard with an example problem of multiplying and dividing by powers of ten. The middle image is a woman putting a decimal point in the number 34.6

Watch for specific examples on how to INTERACTIVELY teach multiplying and dividing decimals by powers of ten with your students.

It's helpful to see decimal numbers on a place value chart so that students can physically move them and see how they increase or decrease by powers of 10 as they move the digits left and right.

Try it using my interactive place value chart.