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I am currently teaching special classes to students whose ages range from 11 to 15 and there is quite a wide spectrum in their levels of maths. The lessons are given in English and we do not have a book to adhere to. Right now, I want to start the chapter on Decimals, having already covered fractions (in particular, limited to integer quotients and the 4 basic operations). Now I can nicely conceptualize decimal expansion using their understanding of fractions.

I was wondering, if there exist publicly available resources, such as textbooks or notes specifically on decimals, that I could print for the students, which would become our guiding manuscript and a constant source of exercises (important for the ones who want to advance further and I'm always behind in composing new series of exercises for them).

  1. In terms of online resources available and not bound to copyrights, are there textbooks (exercise handbooks,..) or dedicated source of exercises on Decimals (expansion, 4 operations,...)?

  2. Similarly, are there well-known sources for printable exercises on fractions?

I write about this without any reservation, meaning I understand there is not going to be something out there that exactly matches what I am looking for and that I might have to put various resources together to complement my courses. That said, any resources you know of that apply to my examples would be most welcome.

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    $\begingroup$ Can you say more about these students? Why are they taking your course? Have they themselves chosen to do this, or was it required by their school or parents? $\endgroup$
    – Sue VanHattum ♦
    Apr 15 at 15:28
  • $\begingroup$ Do you happen to live in a country with decimal notation for money (eg USA, UK, Eurozone) or one with a single currency unit (Japan for example) $\endgroup$
    – James K
    Apr 15 at 21:19
  • $\begingroup$ @SueVanHattum Hi Sue, it's a class specifically for recently arrived refugees, and the main emphasis in the curriculum is put upon learning languages first but they still have maths as well. $\endgroup$
    – user929304
    Apr 16 at 11:30
  • $\begingroup$ @JamesK We are using a dot for the decimal point, I'm not sure if that is what was being asked :) $\endgroup$
    – user929304
    Apr 16 at 11:31
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    $\begingroup$ No, I mean what currency are the students familiar with. Do they use dollars-and-cents, Pounds-and-pence or Euros-and-cents for example. Students who use money like this will likely be very familiar with decimals. Because most goods will be marked with a decimal fraction. But if you live in a country in which the currency isn't sub-divided into hundredths, then they will likely have much less familiarity. $\endgroup$
    – James K
    Apr 16 at 12:20

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David Lippman’s book Arithmetic for College Students might suit your needs. Fractions are covered in Unit 2, and decimals are in Unit 3. The book has explanations and examples and is available in PDF format. There are also handouts and worksheets for each lesson in PDF format and Word format. Everything is open source.

There is also an online course for this book on the free platform MyOpenMath. You can view the course without creating an account by using the username “guest”, no password necessary. In addition to the textbook and worksheets, the online course contains videos and online exercises.

For printable exercises, Kuta Software has exercise generators for Pre-Algebra that can generate worksheets on decimals and fractions. It isn’t free, but they have a few free worksheets on their website, and you can often find Kuta worksheets that other teachers have created if you search on Google.

Math-Drills.com also has printable worksheets. Here are their fractions worksheets.

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  • $\begingroup$ Lots of useful and perfectly applicable resources, thank you Justin! I appreciate how verbose David Lippman's book is, perfect for students to get extra practice in English out of it too. $\endgroup$
    – user929304
    Apr 16 at 11:33
  • $\begingroup$ @user929304 Learning academic language is so important but very challenging for newcomers! Your comment reminded me of another resource that could be useful: these vocabulary word wall cards. $\endgroup$
    – Justin Hancock
    Apr 16 at 15:25

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