Fourth Grade: Fractions and Decimals

Real-world Practice

Help your child practice adding and subtracting decimals with real-life scenarios. Some possibilities include:

• Grocery Shopping Using a grocery circular or an online advertisement, ask your child to pick out four grocery items and find the total. Extend the task by challenging your child to calculate how much change they’d receive if they paid with a $50 bill.
• Taking Temperatures Take your child’s temperature and have them calculate how far below or above the average temperature of 98.6 their temperature is.
• Baking and Cooking Professional bakers and chefs often weigh their ingredients using food scales instead of measuring cups. If you have a food scale, weigh your ingredients next time you make a simple recipe like a smoothie. Add up the weight of the individual ingredients as you mix them. Compare the weight of the finished dish to the total of the individual ingredients. Is it the same?

Encouraging your child to use decimals in real-life scenarios can help them understand the practical applications of math and make it more engaging and relevant to their daily life.