EQUAL TO
How to use this in the classroom
Decimon is the decimal-equivalence cousin of Fracman. Same Pac-Man maze, but the pellets show decimals — students eat only the values equivalent to the target decimal (0.5, 0.50, 0.500 all match; 0.05 doesn't). Especially good for the decimal place-value misconceptions that hit Year 4–5 hard.
Place-value trap surfacer
Pair students at a single device and ask them to talk through each pellet decision out loud before eating. Surfaces the classic 0.5 vs 0.05 trap that worksheets often hide because students can solve it on paper but not at speed.
Decimal-fluency station
20 minutes per group. Strong for the period between introducing decimal notation and decimal operations — bridges the recognition gap that often blocks the operations later.
Sub-friendly
Strong sub-plan option because the game self-validates. Leave instructions on the board with the link.
What it builds
Decimal place-value fluency. The arcade format builds the gut sense for 'is this the same value?' that decimal operations rely on — without it, students learn the procedures for adding decimals but make place-value errors when the numbers look unfamiliar.
Common misconceptions it surfaces
- Length-of-decimal equals value — Students think 0.50 is bigger than 0.5 because it has more digits. The game forces them to confront this directly when both pellets appear in the same wave.
- Trailing-zero confusion — Students who can identify 0.5 = 0.50 but reject 0.500 reveal they're not yet thinking about decimals as place-value structure — they're thinking of them as separate strings.
- Comma-vs-decimal-point (EAL) — EAL students from European-notation backgrounds sometimes hesitate on decimals written with a point. The visual repetition in arcade format normalises the convention faster than instruction.
Differentiation
- Going slower: Start on wave 1 only (target 0.5) and let students explore freely. Once secure, move to wave 2 (target 0.25) and so on.
- Going faster: Wave 4+ introduces decimal-percentage and decimal-fraction equivalences for advanced students.
- Extension: Pair with Fracman or Percentman and challenge students to switch between all three games while keeping their reasoning sharp across all three representations.
Pairs well with
- Fracman — the equivalent-fractions version
- Percentman — the equivalent-percentages version
- Decimal Drift — decimal estimation on a number line