Adding and Subtracting Decimals
Our maths resource on basic adding and subtracting decimals with examples is a perfect and engaging teaching resource specially designed to help school teachers and parents teach their children about this basic mathematical concept. This guide is aimed at simplifying how students in Years 5 to Year 8 understand adding and subtracting.
What are Adding and Subtracting Decimals
The fundamentals of adding and subtracting decimals revolve around mathematical operations involving the addition and subtraction of numbers with a decimal. In adding decimals, the uniqueness that it presents is that one aligns the numbers according to their respective decimal points before summing them up just as one would in adding whole numbers. If the numbers have a different number of decimal places, you can add zeros to the end of the shorter one to make them match. Then each column will be added starting from the right, carrying over if necessary, then position the decimal point on the sum directly below other decimal points. To subtract decimals, the process is akin to addition.
Align the two numbers at the decimal point and add zeros to the right of the number with fewer decimal places in order to make them equal. Start subtracting column by column, moving from right to left, and borrowing if needed. The decimal point in the result should be directly below the decimal points in the numbers you're working with.
Importance in Real Life
Learning about adding and subtracting decimals has great real-life impact, such as
- Helps manage money, like budgeting and shopping.
- Needed for cooking measurements.
- Useful in calculating distances and travel times.
- Important for scientific calculations and experiments.
- Helps in time management by calculating durations.
Why Is This Teaching Resource Helpful
What distinguishes this teaching resource from its counterparts is the ability to make otherwise complex math concepts an easy nut to crack by simplifying them into simpler and manageable steps. It caters for different learning styles, being presented with some accompanied illustrative diagrams as well as practical examples. Standards-aligned with an emphasis on real-life application, it enhances practical skills that are imperative outside a classroom setting. It encourages independent learning to allow students to progress at their own pace thus fostering confidence and competence in maths. The engaging nature of the resource for a student is such that it gives them interest and motivation due to numerous examples and exercises, which are provided for practice and thorough mastery of the subject.
Also, have a look at our wide range of worksheets that are specifically curated to help your students practice their skills related to adding and subtracting decimal worksheets. These teaching resources and worksheets are in PDF format and can be downloaded easily.