Make math fun for your fifth-grade students with activities.
In fifth grade, students are learning about measurements, measuring instruments and units of measurement in math class. They learn measure time, length and weight. They work with fractions and learn the connection between collecting real-world data and organizing and presenting it, in preparation for using data to draw conclusions about the world around them. They use calculators and concrete materials to work with geometric patterns and arithmetic sequences. Help students understand these concepts with hands-on-activities in addition to problem-solving work.
Measurement
Help students understand the concept of measurement units by starting with time. Give them each a paper clock and a series of problems that asks them to translate a number of minutes into a number of hours and minutes. Start with easy problems like 120 minutes = 2 hours. Make sure the clock has 60 tick marks on it to represent 60 minutes in one hour. Work with students on learning use calculators as well as addition, division and multiplication to solve time problems. Include more difficult problems like how many hours and minutes is 1,675 minutes? Work on similar activities with weight and length to help students understand the relationship between inches and feet as well as ounces and pounds. Help them see how units of measurement are used in everyday life by showing them recipes involving ingredients listed in ounces and grams.
Fraction Card Game
Reducing, simplifying and working with fractions can be confusing for anyone, but especially for fifth-graders just learning the concept. Simplify fractions and make them fun for students with a fraction card game that students can play in pairs. This card game will help students learn the relationship between numerators, denominators and simplest form. Give each pair a deck of cards. Remove the face cards from the deck, shuffle and distribute the cards evenly between players. Lay a piece of masking tape down in front of each student to represent the dividing line. Each student lays down a card down above and below the line and writes the fraction down on a sheet of paper, then works to simplify it to its lowest common denominator. The first student to do so correctly wins all four cards. Hold a tournament if you like and have a class winner.
Geometry Study Buddy
Students are introduced to further geometry principles in fifth grade. Preparing for tests and quizzes provides opportunities to solidify understanding of important geometry principles and terms. Help your students broaden their knowledge with a create-your-own Geometry Dictionary activity. Students should get creative with a cover and page design and fill the pages with topics like "Right angles," "Parallel lines" and other topics you've covered in class. On each topic page, students should write a description of the term and draw pictures to represent it. You could ask students to include one picture on each page of an example of the term in the real world (such as, a picture of a bicycle lane illustrates parallel lines).
Temperature Tracker
Plotting data points on the x- and y-axis of a graph can be challenging and dry for students. However, learning the connection between observable data and drawing conclusions with that data about the world is a vital skill for fifth-grade math students to learn. Make it interesting with a temperature-tracker activity. Have your students record the daily temperature highs and lows for a selected city for one week. Get this data from a temperature gauge in your backyard or from an online weather site or the local paper. Help the child set up a graph for the project with days of the week on one axis and temperature on the other. Select different colors for the high and low temperatures. At the end of the week, have the child draw a line to connect the dots and discuss the data with the students.
Tags: students understand, about world, card game, connection between, fifth grade, geometry principles