Rounding Decimals Worksheets
Students see this skill as an obstacle until they start earning money and get a savings account. Their value for this skill is immediately heightened when they begin to understand that how cents, which are actual decimal portions of dollars, are rounded by financial institutions. This type of estimation follows the same exact procedure we used for whole numbers. The only difference is that we are looking just past a decimal point. The greatest confusion or difficulty that we find that students have with this skill is having the ability to isolate the exact digit of interest in the numbers that they are contemplating. This all comes down to having a good command of the names of all the decimal place values. I would highly suggest you spend some time working on that skill with students before jumping into this section. These worksheets and lessons teach students how to skew up or down the values properly in rounding situation with decimals.
Aligned Standard: Grade 5 - 5.NBT.A.4
- Step-by-Step Lesson - We cover the two most common forms of rounding you with see for this topic.
- Guided Lesson - The problems ask you to round to the nearest tenths, dollar, and thousandths. In that order.
- Guided Lesson Explanation - Place value charts are always very helpful to have handy when teaching this skill.
- Working With Simple Decimals Worksheet 1 - This practice sheet focuses on the ones, tenths, and hundredths places.
- Managing Decimals to Ten-Thousandths Worksheet 1 - This seems a bit drawn out, but we commonly see this type of question on samplers from test makers.
- Answer Keys - These are for all the unlocked materials above.
Basic Level Practice Worksheets
This section mostly for remediation and a simple reminder of the skill for students that haven't seen it in a while.
- Simple Decimals 2 - Rounding to the nearest whole number is the same thing as focusing on the nearest ones place.
- Nearest Whole Number 1 - Round the following decimals to the nearest whole number.
- Nearest Whole Number 2 - When we want to estimate anything we look at the place value the are asking us to round to first.
- Rounding Money (to dollars) 1 - Get the following values to the nearest dollar amount.
- Rounding Money (to dollars) 2 - The digit to the right of that place value determines if the ones place value rounds up or stays the same.
More Advanced Practice Worksheets
You will find that these are all relatively at the same level for the same skills.
- Decimals to the Nearest Hundreds and Thousands 1 - If the digit to the right is 5 or greater, we round the number up. If the digit is 4 or less, the number stays the same.
- Decimals to the Nearest Hundreds and Thousands 2 - Identify the place value in the question.
- To Ten-Thousandths Worksheet 2 - Remove all values to the right of the value in question.
How to Round Decimals
Estimating is an essential part of mathematics and a beneficial tool in daily life. Learning how to estimate distance, lengths, and other amounts help us significantly in everyday measurements. It will help speed up your ability to make good decisions. Rounding off the numbers is a type of estimation. We have previously come across this skill with whole numbers and at this point should have a good understanding of how to apply this up to the ten-thousands place. Rounding off decimal values work the same as when we are working with whole numbers. When tackling this skill with decimals, we typically round off to a whole number or one or two decimal places. It depends based on the situation we are working with and what level of accuracy is necessary for you needs.
When we talk about rounding off decimals to the whole number, we focus on the numbers present on tenths and one's places. Basically, all the values that are found to the right of the decimal point. It comes down to making sure that you are focused on identifying the proper digit within the number and that comes from learning the names of all the places to the right of the decimal point. Always round off the decimal place to the nearest numbers, increasing or dropping the decimal point.
Once you have pinpointed the digit of interest, just look to the digit that resides to the immediate right. The tip here is that if that digit is 5 or greater than 5, we move one decimal point up. When the digit is less than 5, we move down one unit. Let’s see this in action:
If we were focused on whole number estimates. 7.1 will round off to 7. We will drop the 0.1 decimal point. Similarly, 33.9 will round off to 34. we will move one decimal point up. If there are more places, then drop them. For example, 21.816 will round off to 22. 2.134 will round off to 2. When we are rounding off the decimal to two places, we will focus on second and third decimal places. For example, 43.4344 will round off to 43. 25.5674 will round off to 25.57.
Why Do We Round Decimals Anyway?
Anytime we perform this skill the value that we get is less accurate and much less precise than the original version of the value. Why in the world would you ever want something that is less accurate? The first thing that it does is provide you with a value that is much easier to operate with. It makes the math easier and much more manageable. In reality it just saves us a ton of time. We would only use this in situation where accuracy and precision is not a big deal. If you want to know about how many more cars you can fit in the parking lot, this is a time to use this skill. If you were wrong or off by a few cars, you can double park the extra cars or have a few empty parking slots. In a case where you were trying to determine the proper amount of medication to give a medical patient (life and death), you would not use this skill.