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Adding decimals worksheets

Adding decimals is column addition with one extra rule: the decimal points line up. These free printable worksheets stack every question with the points already aligned, so the arithmetic is what gets practiced.

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Adding decimals
Adding decimals worksheet — Tenths and hundredths, free printable with answer key

The answer key prints on a separate page.

What's on this sheet

Line up the points and every column holds digits of the same size — tenths above tenths, hundredths above hundredths. Line up the right-hand edges instead, which is what a child trained on whole numbers will do, and 4.78 + 11.01 becomes an addition of things that are not comparable. The rule is one sentence and it is the whole topic.

Why this sheet works

Filling the short number with a zero is the other half. 6.5 + 12.83 is easier to see as 6.50 + 12.83, and writing that zero in is not cheating — it is saying that six and a half has no hundredths, which is true and worth making visible.

How this one works

One question from this sheet, worked through a step at a time.

4.78 + 11.01

4.78 11.01 15.79
  1. 4.78 + 11.01. Line the POINTS up under each other — not the right-hand ends. Right-aligning is what turns 12.5 + 3.75 into a tidy-looking wrong answer.
  2. 8 plus 1 makes 9. Write 9.
  3. 7 plus 0 makes 7. Write 7.
  4. 4 plus 1 makes 5. Write 5.
  5. 0 plus 1 makes 1. Write 1.
  6. The point in the answer comes straight down from the ones above it — it was never moved, only lined up. 4.78 + 11.01 = 15.79.

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