What are decimals?

Decimals are like pieces of a puzzle that help us describe parts of whole things.

Imagine you have a chocolate bar divided into 10 equal squares. If you take just one square, you've taken 1/10 of the whole bar, and that’s the same as 0.1 in decimal form. If you take two squares, that's 0.2, and so on. Decimals help us show parts of things when we can’t use whole numbers.

Decimals are written with a decimal point, like a tiny dot that separates the whole part from the part.

• If you have 3 whole chocolate bars and 4 squares from another bar, it’s 3.4 in decimal form.
• Just like how we count money: if you have 2 dollars and 50 cents, it's $2.50.

Think of a ruler, each inch is divided into smaller parts, like tenths or hundredths. If something is 1 and a half inches long, that’s 1.5 on the ruler.

Or think about time: if you’ve been playing for 2 hours and 30 minutes, that’s like having 2.5 hours in decimal form.

Decimals make it easier to work with parts of things, just like how we use pieces of chocolate or slices of pie every day!