Further Clarification 4.MD.1

[brandeli]

Bill, I have read past forum posts to try to get some clarification for 4.MD.1. I understand that we should take into account the other grade 4 standards. I could see students having to convert 5 cm to m and looking at it as 5/100 or 0.05 because this is within the scope of 4.NF.6 to write decimals as fractions of 10 or 100. But would they convert say 5 mm to m? This would be 5/1000 and not within the scope of 4.NF.6. Would they be asked to convert say 5 m to 0.005 KM? I know this seems picky but teachers are asking and I don’t want to lead them down the wrong path.

Thanks!
Beth

[Bill McCallum]

A couple of thoughts on this. First, 4.MD.1 is about converting from larger units to smaller units, not the other way around. Converting both ways is in 5.MD.1, which in fact mentions as an example the exact conversion you give, 5 cm to 0.05 m. The reason for this is that multiplication of whole numbers by fractions doesn’t occur until Grade 5. However, you are right that this particular conversion could be discussed in Grade 4, using both 4.NF.6 and 4.NF.4, which enables students to see 5/100 as $5 \times 1/100$. Still, it is not required in Grade 4. And your second example is even less required!

[Author]

Posts