Week 5 of 8
Week 5
5th Grade → 6th Grade · Order of operations and Research writing
Math
Order of Operations
Solving expressions with parentheses in the right sequence. Fifth grade.
The mistake to watch for. Working strictly left to right and ignoring the parentheses — (3 + 4) × 2 answered as 11.
How to help. Have your child rewrite the expression with the parenthesis already solved before doing anything else. One line of extra writing removes the error.
A worked example
Solve 6 + 4 × 3. Multiply before you add: 4 × 3 = 12, then 6 + 12 = 18. If you added first you would get 30, which is wrong. Parentheses go first: (6 + 4) × 3 = 30.
Words for this week
- operation
- A kind of math work: adding, subtracting, multiplying or dividing.
- parentheses
- The curved marks ( ) that show which part to work out first.
- multiply
- To add the same number again and again, in a faster way.
- add
- To put numbers together to find how many in all.
- order
- The way things are arranged, one after another.
Read this week
Cloud
A short earth & weather article from our Learn library, chosen for this reading level. Read it together, then ask your child to tell you one new thing they learned.