Purpose: Using a child's knowledge and previous study of space to help
them conceptualize decimals and place value to the right of the decimal.
Story: Our scientists have discovered a new solar system in the universe,
which they have named the Decimal System.
There is one sun in this system, called Decimal.
There are many planets which travel an elliptical path around the sun.
The first planet, closet to the sun "Decimal" our scientists have
named "Ones". But there is something very strange about it's orbit,
at one point it travels so close to the sun that for a time it "disappears."
On Earth we can't see it. (Just like the ones place to the right of the decimal.)
The second planet our scientists have named "Tens." Tens can be seen
as it goes around the sun Decimal, as it doesn't go so close it "disappears"
from us. .
The scientists name the third planet "Hundreds" and the fourth planet from the sun Decimal, they name "Thousands". And so on and so on.
When the planet orbits are to the right of the the sun Decimal the planets
appear to us as being in reverse order then when they are on the left. of the
sun. In reality they are just following their course around the sun.
To help children see this write out the list below. In a circle draw connections
between the tens "orbit", the hundreds "orbit" and so on.
Warning: This map and model does not work when explaining that in the difference between a Ten Thousand and a Hundred to the left of the decimal the Ten Thousand is bigger and to the right everything is reversed. Unless you want to invent another story much like "Alice Through the Looking Glass" or "Sliders" universe where everything to the right of the decimal is the exact opposite of everything to the left.
© copyright 2001, 2002 Cynthia Sulaiman