Decimal Place Value Song | 5th - 6th Grade Math Video

Numberock's Decimal Place Value Song combines beautifully written verses of mathematical poetry with a ridiculously catchy melody backed by hip-hop rhythms. We hope it becomes an annual tradition in your classroom whenever you happen to be covering place value during the 5th Grade year(5.NBT).

When you find your entire classroom singing along to, "Whole Numbers to the left, Decimals to the right...", without any prompting, you'll know you have found the perfect hook to capture your students interest while adding that extra spark to your place value lesson!

Grades Targeted | 5th Grade - 6th Grade

Decimal Place Value Song Lyrics

Verse 1
If you split the number one into ten parts,
that’s where the decimal place values start.
They’re values less than one - they’re quite small -
like zero point one, which is a decimal, y’all.
This number as a fraction is one over ten,
and zero point one is it’s decimal equivalent.
Fractions over ten, one hundred, one thousand and on,
are all decimal numbers - it’s a phenomenon.

Prechorus 1
Decimals are fractions, just with different names.
They each have a value that’s exactly the same.

Chorus
Whole numbers to the left! Decimals to the right!
They get smaller and smaller, ’til they’re barely in sight.
Like whole numbers can get big, decimals can get small;
if you know place value, you can imagine them all.

Verse 2
On a place value chart, you’ll see a pattern starts
if you split one tenth into ten equal parts.
This new value is one hundredth, and in every case,
one hundred hundredths equals one whole in the one’s place.
And if you split just one hundredth into ten parts,
that’s the next place on the place value chart…
This value is one thousandth of the number one.
Like every decimal, it’s a special fraction.

Prechorus 2
When any denominator is a power of ten,
that fraction can be written as its decimal equivalent.

Repeat Chorus

Bridge (rap)
We’ve got the tenths, the hundredths, the thousandths, and more…
Let’s imagine a number line to further explore.
You see, there’s a special land between zero and one
where you’ll find decimal numbers, and every fraction.
Between zero and one, make ten intervals:
these are tenths, written as fractions or decimals.
When counting by tenths, after you get to nine,
the tenth tenth makes one whole on the number line.

Let’s see what happens as the place value decreases,
and one tenth is divided into ten equal pieces.
We get a hundredth; written as point zero one;
and ten of these make a tenth, but we’re not done!
Split a hundredth into ten parts and we’ll get
one thousandth, the smallest value we’ve seen yet!
Ten thousandths make one hundredth, one hundred make one tenth,
one thousand thousandths makes one whole … isn’t it brilliant?!

Learn More

Would you like to extend this lesson with teaching ideas off of our Numberock platform? If so, we recommend this fun Decimal Place Value game, which is really easy to set up and get started playing.

This song is aligned to the following 5th Grade Common Core learning standards; 5.NBT.1 & 5.NBT.3. To understand the specific requirements of each standard, read the standard's exact language by visiting the official CCSSI page for standards 5.NBT.1 and 5.NBT.3.

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