Year 5 Use knowledge of decimals to solve problems in different contexts: length worksheet

“Metres and centimetres” is free to print, with no account. It is the first sheet in the Year 5 maths unit “Use knowledge of decimals to solve problems in different contexts: length”, for children aged 9 to 10, and takes about 20 minutes.

Print it on A4. The child's pages come first; the answers, and what each wrong answer tells you, are on the grown-up page that follows. Weeks 3 to 5 of the year, 10 sheets in the unit.

Free sample · answers on the last page

Metres and centimetres

Name: ____________ · Date: ____________
Year 5 · Maths · about 20 minutes
Answers are on the grown-up page

Today I can convert between metres and centimetres using decimal place value.

A Look back3 min

1.
6 × 10 =
2.
74 47
3.
3 tens and 8 ones make

B Watch me, then you4 min

Ola's pencil is 36 cm long. How long is it in metres?

Watch me

Each cell is one centimetre. 36 cells are shaded.

100 cells make 1 metre, so each cell is a hundredth of a metre.

So 36 cm is 0.36 m.

Now you

1.
A pencil is 52 cm long. How long is it in metres? m

C Your turn6 min

The strip shows 100 cm, which is 1 metre.

1.
4 cm = m
2.
40 cm = m
3.
47 cm = m
4.
105 cm = m

Say it out loud: What did you notice about the digits after the point as the centimetres grew?

D Spot the mistake3 min

Kit says: “3 cm is 0.3 m.”

1.
What is 3 cm in metres? m

E Think deeper4 min

1.
Which of these lengths are the same as 1.2 m?
120 cm12 cm1 m 20 cm1.02 m102 cm

How did it feel?

I can do it Nearly Not yet

For the grown-up

Metres and centimetres · 2 minutes to read

Answers, and what a wrong one tells you

A

1. 60

2. >

3. 38

B

1. 0.52 m

C

1. 0.04 m

2. 0.4 m

3. 0.47 m

4. 1.05 m

D

1. 0.03 m If your child writes 0.3, the 3 has moved into the tenths column, which means 30 cm. Put a zero in the tenths column first, so 3 cm is 0.03 m.

E

1. 120 cm, 1 m 20 cm If your child circles 1.02 m, the 2 has been put in the hundredths column, which is 2 cm. So 1.02 m is 102 cm, not 120 cm. Ask them to count the centimetres after the metre.

Words to use

Say“Which column does the last digit go in? Check it against the ruler.”

Instead of“Just say the answer is 0.3, because the decimal point moves.”

After the sheet

Measure three things at home with a ruler. Write each length in metres as a decimal and check the last digit sits in the hundredths place.

Tick what your child got right in StudyDen. Anything missed comes back in a later Look back box, so there's no need to redo the sheet.

The rest of this unit

9 more sheets come with a StudyDen plan, in teaching order:

Equal parts of a metre(with a plan)
Equal parts of a metre(with a plan)
Bridging one tenth with hundredths(with a plan)
Adding decimal lengths(with a plan)
Rounding to the nearest tenth(with a plan)
Rounding to the nearest whole(with a plan)
Writing thousandths as decimals(with a plan)
Comparing decimal lengths(with a plan)
Quick ways with decimal lengths(with a plan)

Every Year 5 maths worksheet

The worksheets plan opens a printable sheet for every lesson in Years 1 to 6, each with its answers on a separate page for you. It costs £6.99 a month or £59 a year for the whole family, with no free trial.

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