5th Grade Math Lesson Powers of 10 Multiply and Divide by…

About this resource

What's inside this resource

This simple math lesson will help your middle grades students understand how to multiply & divide by powers of ten.

It is a great way to address 5th grade math common standards in Numbers in Base Ten: A.1 and A.2.

How to Use:

Kinaesthetic Lesson Idea:

When I introduce this lesson, I take some pieces of construction paper and write a single digit, a decimal place, or a zero on each one.

I have some students come up to the front of the room to hold the cards.

Then they physically move around to slide the the decimal place card to another spot, or to add or remove zero cards.

This lets the rest of the class easily see and visualize this math in action.

For example, if I had four students holding cards with a 5, a 2, a 0, and a decimal, and I asked them to divide by 10, they would move to show 52.0 instead of 520.

After the hands-on math lesson, we go through the handout page as a class- filling in the blanks and learning the rules for multiplying & dividing by powers of ten.

Finally, the students will complete the practice section of the worksheet independently.

Early finishers can create their own word problems that involve multiplying or dividing by powers of 10 to share during the wrap-up of the lesson.

Answer Key Included

Grades to Use With:

This lesson is designed to meet 5th grade learning standards, but it could also be used with grade 4 students, or in a split class, or as a review in 6th and 7th grade.

What's Included:

A total of 4 pages in PDF format: Ready to Print and Use!

Teacher Instructions
2-Page Student Handout and Worksheet
Answer Key

Standards: 5th Grade Numbers in Base 10 Standards A.1 and A.2

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In the classroom

Teaching tips & learning objectives

Learning objectives

Explain how multiplying or dividing by a power of 10 shifts the decimal point of a number
Multiply and divide whole numbers and decimals by 10, 100, 1,000, and larger powers of 10
Write an original word problem that requires multiplying or dividing by a power of 10

Teaching tips

Give four students digit, zero, and decimal-point cards and have them physically reposition themselves to model each multiplication or division step before moving to the handout
Go through the guided-notes page together as a class before releasing students to the independent practice page
Have early finishers write and share their own word problem involving a power of 10 during the lesson wrap-up

Skills covered

Place-value reasoning — students explain how the decimal point shifts when multiplying or dividing by a power of 10.
Multiplication and division fluency — students solve 16 mixed problems involving powers of 10, including decimals.
Word-problem construction — early finishers write their own multiplication or division word problem using a power of 10.

Good to know

Questions teachers ask about this resource

How does the kinesthetic card demonstration work?

Students hold cards showing a digit, a zero, or a decimal point, then physically move to reposition the decimal point or add and remove zero cards — for example, showing 520 become 52.0 when divided by 10.

What kinds of problems appear in the independent practice section?

Sixteen problems mixing multiplication and division by 10, 100, 1,000, and larger powers of ten, including several with decimals, such as 7.5 x 100 and 6.2 ÷ 10.

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Curriculum

Standards, concepts & topics

Standards

5.NBT.A.1 — Recognize that in a multi-digit number, a digit in one place represents 10 times as much as it represents in the place to its right and 1/10 of what it represents in the place to its left.
5.NBT.A.2 — Explain patterns in the number of zeros of the product when multiplying a number by powers of 10, and explain patterns in the placement of the decimal point when a decimal is multiplied or divided by a power of 10. Use wholenumber exponents to denote powers of 10.

Core concepts

Powers of 10
Decimal point shifts
Place value

Topics

powers of 10 multiplication decimals place value hands-on math division

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5th Grade Math Lesson Powers of 10 Multiply and Divide by Powers of 10

What's inside this resource