Elementary Concepts: Fifth Grade Math

A fifth grader should be able to recognize numbers up to 100,000, be able to place them in order and compare them to other numbers. By the time your child completes grade five, they should be able to count by 3's, 4's, 6's, 7's, 8's, 9's, 10's, 11's and 12's up to 144. Your student should have a firm grasp of multiplication and division with all the numbers up 12 and should be able to add, subtract, multiply and divide with decimals and fractions.

Lessons in measurement also continue during the fifth grade. Before entering the sixth grade, your child should be able to make appropriate use of units such as inches, feet, yards, millimeters, centimeters, meters, kilometers and miles. They should have a grasp of reading and writing with dates and time, as well as the ability to use money correctly.

Basic algebra skills await your child In the fifth grade. They'll learn about the order of operations in a math problem, how to complete math problems with multiple operations, and how to find a missing value in an equation involving multiple operations.

Fifth graders receive their first basic geometry problems and by the end of the school year they should be able to identify and categorize triangles by their properties and measure and construct triangles and angles with a protractor. They will also learn about planes, tessellations, and grid coordinate systems.

Before advancing to the sixth grade, students will design surveys and collect data and adequately record it using graphs and diagrams. The fifth grade also prepares students to make appropriate predictions when presented with sufficient background information on a given situation.

Many fifth grade students are able to earn a passing grade in their math classes without fully understanding the concepts they have been taught. It's critical for parents to monitor their child's progress. Some students can slip by without showing major signs of confusion. This means that even if your child does not ask for help with their fifth grade math they could still have skill gaps. These skill gaps will interfere with success in sixth grade math.

Math assessment tests are one way for parents to learn how much their child truly gained from grade five. These assessments are available online through Internet tutoring centers. Additional information on this subject can be found in the math section of this website.