5th grade math help: decimals, fraction operations and volume
Get tutoring help for your child →Fifth grade is the last year of elementary math in many schools, and it pulls together everything students have learned about place value and fractions. Decimals to the thousandths, fraction arithmetic with unlike denominators, volume and order of operations all show up. A solid fifth grade year makes the move to middle school math much smoother.
A quick tour of fifth grade content
Most states use Common Core standards or close relatives, which typically ask fifth graders to:
- Work with decimals: read, write, compare and round them to the thousandths, and add, subtract, multiply and divide them to hundredths.
- Add and subtract fractions with unlike denominators by finding equivalent fractions with a common denominator.
- Multiply fractions and divide unit fractions by whole numbers and whole numbers by unit fractions.
- Find volume of rectangular prisms by packing unit cubes and by using length × width × height.
- Use parentheses and order of operations to write and evaluate simple numerical expressions.
- Graph points on the first quadrant of a coordinate plane.
- Multiply multi-digit whole numbers fluently with the standard method and divide by two-digit divisors.
Ideas that confuse fifth graders
Many children think 0.25 is bigger than 0.5 because 25 is bigger than 5. When multiplying decimals, they may line up the decimal points as in addition and lose track of where the point belongs. Multiplying by a fraction less than one makes a number smaller, which surprises students who were told multiplication always makes things bigger. Order of operations goes wrong when a child works strictly left to right. Volume and area get swapped when the difference between square units and cubic units is fuzzy.
When your fifth grader may be falling behind
- Decimal answers are off by a factor of ten or a hundred and your child does not notice.
- Unlike denominators are ignored and fractions are added straight across.
- Multi-digit multiplication or division is still slow and error-filled.
- Worry about middle school math is growing.
The fractions help guide goes deeper on why fraction trouble often surfaces now.
Questions for a tutor at this level
- How will you connect decimals to fractions and place value?
- Do you start with models before moving to shortcuts?
- How will you prepare my child for the jump to sixth grade?
- Can you work from my child's actual classwork and tests?
Home activities that fit fifth grade
- Compare prices on receipts or menus to practice decimal place value.
- Cook with fractions: double or halve a recipe and work out the new amounts.
- Box volume: measure a cereal or shoe box and calculate how many cubic inches it holds.
- Puzzle expressions: give four numbers and ask your child to place parentheses to reach a target.
- Map grids: plot locations on graph paper using ordered pairs.
Once these are steady, sixth grade math brings ratios and negative numbers.
Tell us your child’s grade, ZIP code and the subject that feels hardest. Wherever you live in the U.S., we’ll search for a tutoring provider near you. Families near Bay Ridge, Brooklyn can connect with Huntington Learning Center.
Start the questionnaireRelated guides
- Fractions help for parents: why they are hard and how to help
- 6th grade math help: ratios, negative numbers and expressions
- 4th grade math help: long division, equivalent fractions and angles
- All parent guides