Lesson 6 Compare Decimals on the Number Line

    • Let’s locate and label decimals on number lines.

Warm-up Notice and Wonder: Nested Lines

What do you notice? What do you wonder?

number lines

Activity 1 Locate 1 Thousandth

On each number line:

  • Label all of the tick marks.

  • Locate and label the number 0.001.

  1. Number line. Scale 0 to 1. Eleven evenly spaced tick marks. First tick mark, 0. Last tick mark, 1. 
  2. Number line. Scale 0 to 1 tenth. Eleven evenly spaced tick marks. First tick mark, 0. Last tick mark, 1 tenth. 
  3. Number line. 11 evenly spaced tick marks. First tick mark, 0. Last tick mark, 1 hundredth. 

Activity 2 Label and Compare Decimals

Problem 1

Label the tick marks on each number line.

  1. Number line scaled 5 tenths to 6 tenths. Eleven evenly spaced tick marks. First tick mark, 5 tenths. Last tick mark, 6 tenths. 
  2. Number line. Eleven evenly spaced tick marks. First tick mark, 53 hundredths. Last tick mark, 54 hundredths. 
  3. Number line. Eleven evenly spaced tick marks. First tick mark, 57 hundredths. Last tick mark, 58 hundredths. 

Problem 2

Which of the number lines would you use to compare 0.534 and 0.537? Explain or show your reasoning.

Activity 3 Locate and Compare With Symbols

  1. Use the symbol < or > to compare the decimals 0.2 and 0.02. Use the number line to explain or show your thinking.

    Number line. Scale 0 to 3 tenths, by 1 tenths.  

  2. Use the symbol < or > to compare the decimals 0.3 and 0.14. Use the number line to explain or show your thinking.

    Number line. Scale 0 to 3 tenths, by 1 tenths.  

  3. Use the symbol < or > to compare the decimals 0.23 and 0.216. Use the number line to explain or show your thinking.

    Number line. Scale 21 hundredths to 24 hundredths, by 1 hundredths.  

Practice Problem

Problem 1

  1. Label the tick marks. Use the number line to explain your reasoning.

    Number line. Eleven evenly spaced tick marks. First tick mark, 65 hundredths. Last tick mark, 66 hundredths.

  2. Which is greater, 0.654 or 0.658? Explain or show your reasoning.