5th Grade CCSS Math School Year Outline

The 5th Grade Common Core State Standards (CCSS) are laid out in the following sequence in my school district: (this is my main listing that will link to a page for each standard. Be on the lookout for assessments, which are grouped in 2 week blocks for the most part)

THIS PAGE IS UNDER MAJOR CONSTRUCTION, SO BOOKMARK IT AND CHECK BACK OFTEN!

1st 9 Weeks:

• 5.NBT.1
• 5.NBT.2
• 5.NBT.3
• 5.NBT.4
• 5.NBT.5
• 5.NBT.6
• 5.NBT.7

2nd 9 Weeks:

• 5.NF.1
• 5.NF.2
• 5.NF.3
• 5.NF.4
• 5.NF.5
• 5.NF.6
• 5.NF.7

3rd 9 Weeks:

• 5.OA.1
• 5.OA.2
• 5.OA.3
• 5.MD.1
• 5.MD.2
• 5.MD.3
• 5.MD.4
• 5.MD.5
• 5.G.1
• 5.G.2
• 5.G.3
• 5.G.4

4th 9 Weeks:

• 4th 9 weeks is set aside for review (the scope and sequence in my district was written so that all standards could be taught before the administration of the PARCC). 

5th Grade Math Resources for CCSS 5.NBT.2

5.NBT.2: Explain patterns in the number of zeros of the product when multiplying a number by powers of 10, and explain patterns in the placement of the decimal point when a decimal is multiplied or divided by a power of 10. Use whole-number exponents to denote powers of 10.

UNPACKED EXPLANATION:  This one is fairly straight forward. This standard is commonly known as "the powers of 10," so keep that in mind. It's all about base 10 and understanding that you're multiplying by ten each time you move to the next larger place value, with an understanding of the opposite function of adding a 0, which is removing a zero, while understanding conceptually that removing a 0 means the decimal point has moved a place to the left. Finally, exponents are a great way to have students denote these relationships, and starts building upon skills they'll use a lot further on down the road.

WHAT THE PARCC WILL EXPECT: The PARCC Practice Test site does not have specific problems for 5.NBT.2, but when looking closer at this standard, students will need to be familiar with problems that resemble the following:

• 34 x 10,000 =
• 90,000 ÷ 30 =
• 0.00034 x 10,000 =
• Check out this collection of videos from LeanZillion that explains the entire process of powers of 10.

RESOURCES

• First off, a lot of the things I referenced in my post for 5.NBT.1 are relevant to this standard as well. So check that out: 5th Grade Math Resources for CCSS 5.NBT.1.
• Some practice problems at Orglib.com: This is a great site where you can make an account, build tests from a bank of questions, and even track student results. It's one of the closer things I've found that can mimic the PARCC assessment. 
• Even though it's in my last post, this is a spot on activity for this standard:
• Place value cups (click the link for instructions): This simple activity is very concrete for kids, and if you keep a few handy, they're good for reference later in the year for students who didn't retain everything they learned during the teaching of 5.NBT.1.
• Powers of 10 Yahtzee: Although I linked to the Google Doc here, I'll go ahead and explain this game in my own words: 
• Power of 10 Yahtzee should be played in pairs. Students should already have an understanding of exponents and how to navigate a place value chart. Each player is going to roll the dice. Whatever number player A rolls they will put it as an exponent to the base number 10 (if they roll a 4, they will be finding the product of 10 to the power of 4, or 10,000). Then player B goes. They do this 5 times, and add up their totals, whoever has the highest total wins. A more rigorous extension of this game for the advanced student would be to have each student roll two dice (preferably different colored dice would work), and have one color be the base number and the second be the exponent). 
• IXL Listing of Problems that Fit the Standard
• The following listing is for worksheets:
• Mathworksheetland.com 5.NBT.2 Listing: A great starting point. Why make your own worksheets when there's already practice stuff out there. If you know how, you can send these right to an iPad and have kids do some practice there, or print them out.
• Mrmaffesoli.com Printables: I use these, good stuff for sure.

Vocabulary

I'll list a few sites that have good 5.NBT.2 vocabulary. I can't really even begin to say how important it is to teach students not only what academic vocabulary words mean, but how to use them in context. There's a lot of power in having students state their reasoning academically that goes beyond testing and helps reinforce the ideas they're learning about.

• A great pdf at what's a great go to resource for vocabulary, duplinschools.net. 
• UEN.org resource file with vocabulary.

5.NBT.2 Video

The first two videos are of Khan Academy explaining both multiplying and dividing by powers of 10:

Multiplying by Powers of 10

Dividing by Powers of 10

Lastly, the STEM teacher in me can't resist putting up this video that explains what exponential growth is really all about in a scientific regard. I give to you now, Cosmic Voyage, narrated by Morgan Freeman:

5th Grade Math Resources for CCSS 5.NBT.1

5.NBT.1: Recognize that in a multi-digit number, a digit in one place represents 10 times as much as it represents in the place to its right and 1/10 of what it represents in the place to its left.

UNPACKED EXPLANATION: We're basically talking about place value, with an explicit focus on what it means to move up a place and down a place. Within this domain, students will be expected to work with numbers from billions to thousandths. A big pitfall here is to start adding and subtracting these numbers together. The reality here is an understanding of the place value system, and what it means concretely to move between the place values.

WHAT THE PARCC WILL EXPECT: The PARCC samples are taken directly from the PARCC Practice Tests website.

The sample for 5.NBT.1 is as follows:

When you click on the drop down "Choose..." box, you're given something similar to the following:

Teaching Grit and Rigor in the Classroom: Validating Everything I Do

OK, well it's been a long hiatus from the blog (7 months actually), but I'm back. This year has been a difficult one, with implementing the Common Core, and dealing with a lot of changes in my school district, but I am happy to say that I'm finding more time to get back to my passions, one of them being this blog... So, with that being said, let's move on.

This morning on my way to work, I listened to a great piece on NPR called "Does Teaching Kids To Get 'Gritty' Help Them To Get Ahead?" The article goes on to explain that a child's grit (determination, the willingness to fight on and never give up) can actually be a better predictor of success than can IQ score or standardized test scores. But it also states that it can be hard to implement strategies to teach 'grit,' that it seems to be an inherent trait that certain kids have and certain kids don't.

Yet, I've been stuck thinking about this all day. Every teacher deals with the kids who give up easily. We've all heard the 'this is hard, I quit' mentality that plagues so many children in our world today. Actually, those kids have probably always been there, and it can be easy to see them not being successful as they get older. After all, what is college all about? More than anything else, college tests your ability to do something for many years, dealing with tons of ridiculous garbage, bureaucracy, and politics, and finally get a degree and a job. College is all about grit and self-drive.

In the article, Jason Baehr, a philosophy professor at Loyola Marymount University says the following:

"But I'll say from our experience in the school, I see [kids learning to be grittier] all the time. ... You can create a classroom culture in which struggle and risk-taking is valued more than just getting the right answer."

I made a challenge to myself this year, well a few actually, but what it came down to was creating a classroom focused on process and not product, struggle and rigor and not just right answers and policy. Overall, I feel validated, I feel that my students have shown a greater ability to problem solve, to persevere, and to challenge themselves than ever before in the past. Of course there are the exceptions, as with any class, but I feel that I'm finally coming into my own and creating a classroom culture that demands grit, and I want to grow that.

This article is spot on the way I feel about education at this point in my career. We can discuss hands on learning and investigative approaches, project based learning and strategies to instruct in literacy and math all day and never come to a consensus. But what we need to do is realize that not every child is going to persevere, especially in a subject they aren't passionate about. What we can do, however, is train kids to fight, and deal with their frustration in a constructive way. After all, school isn't supposed to be fun or easy. It's supposed to challenge students, to make them think, to make them frustrated, and to learn to think outside the box. Rigor, relevance, and a classroom focused on the active struggle is a great start. Please read or listen to the article, if you missed the link above, here it is again:

Does Teaching Kids To Get 'Gritty' Help Them To Get Ahead?

Daily Math Challenge: Upping the Rigor in Mathematics Instruction

All teachers (should) follow lessons plans and unit plans in order to make their instruction cohesive and make sense. I'm not going to get into all the aspects of following scaffolded, developmentally appropriate lesson plans, but if you're "winging it" everyday in the classroom without a clear focus, don't expect a lot of learning to take place.

The point of this post is taking a little timeout in math everyday to let students think and work through challenging, rigorous problems without an immediately evident solution. I call this activity "daily brain work," and it takes 10 minutes. The intent here is to pose a problem to the class, and to step away and let them work through the problem on their own. Students should be able to elaborate and articulate how they reached their solution. Finally, go over the problem, have some students share their answers, and hopefully at least a few have the correct solution to share.

In order to get started, I needed some multi step story problems. Don't start too difficult, and make sure that everything you give students is developmentally appropriate for the majority of the class.

Here are some resources to find multi step word problems and other math puzzles / brain workouts:

Math Multi-Step Word Problems

• 25 Word Problems at IQ Study Activities: A good starting point to find some straight forward story problems appropriate for 5th graders.
• A Few Pages of Story Problems at about.com: Nothing fancy, just some more story problems.
• Helping With Math Word Problems Guide: A page with some information on how to help students approach open ended questions, and a bank of questions as well.
• Challenging Word Problems at Math Top 10: Good stuff here, there's a lot of them too.

Brain Teasers / Math Puzzles

• Houghton Mifflin Grade 5 Brain Teasers: A nice little collection of word problems and brain teasers already set into CCSS categories.
• Math Salamanders Printable Math Puzzles: The whole salamander theme is a little bizarre, but there's a lot of good puzzles here.