Place value chart with decimals
A place value chart with decimals, also called a decimal place value chart, carries the whole-number places past the decimal point to tenths, hundredths and thousandths. The point gets its own narrow column, so every digit of a number written in stays in its place.
Free printable PDF, 4th grade to 5th grade.
One page, black and white, prints the same every time.
What is on the sheet
The table below is the sheet as it prints with these options: To thousands, 8.
| Thousands | Ones | Decimals | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hundreds | Tens | Ones | Hundreds | Tens | Ones | . | Tenths | Hundredths | Thousandths |
| . | |||||||||
| . | |||||||||
| . | |||||||||
| . | |||||||||
| . | |||||||||
| . | |||||||||
| . | |||||||||
| . | |||||||||
The point is the middle, not the ones
The most common decimal misconception is that the places mirror around the decimal point, so that tenths sit opposite tens. They do not: the ones place is the centre, and tenths sit opposite tens only if you count from the ones. On this chart the ones column is the last whole-number column, the point has its own thin column, and tenths, hundredths and thousandths follow. Writing 3.25 into the chart puts the 3 in ones, the 2 in tenths and the 5 in hundredths, with nothing in the point column but the point.
Each place to the right is a tenth of the one before, the same rule that runs the whole-number side. Saying "0.4 is four tenths, 0.04 is four hundredths" while pointing at the columns is most of the lesson.
Exercises
Write a decimal into the chart and read it aloud by its last place: 2.075 is "two and seventy-five thousandths". Write two decimals in two rows and compare them from the left, which settles the 0.5 versus 0.45 argument in one look. Round to tenths by circling the tenths column and looking at the hundredths next to it. Write money amounts to see dollars in the ones place and cents in tenths and hundredths.
Common questions
- Is the decimal place value chart a free PDF?
- Yes. The print button makes a one-page PDF. It is free and needs no login. Pick how far the whole-number places go and how many writing rows you want first, and the PDF matches.
- Which grade uses this chart?
- Fourth grade meets tenths and hundredths; 5th grade reads, writes and compares decimals to thousandths, which is the full width of this chart.
- Can I have whole numbers to millions with decimals?
- Yes, choose "To millions" above the print button. The columns get narrower to fit thirteen places on the page, so the "To thousands" version is the better one for young handwriting.