Grade 5 Homework for October

Dear Parents, 

I hope you found some time to try out last month’s math games. This month our focus continues to be on mental math strategies, in particular, estimation. As you well know, as an adult, estimation is the most common form of math that most of us do. You don’t often see an adult walking around a grocery store with pen and paper or even a calculator. We round up, find friendly numbers (i.e. multiply by 10 instead of 9) and generally try to find the easiest way to get to the information we need. We know when it is important to be accurate (measuring 2x4's for the shed) and when we can wing it (just toss in a bit of salt).

Below you will find some games that promote this type of thinking. They combine opportunities for estimation with opportunities to practice pencil and paper (or calculator) addition and subtraction.

Have Fun!

The first game is a good warm-up to keep the strategies from last month sharp.

Make 100 with a multiplication twist.

Students roll 2 dice. Mentally find the product of the 2 numbers and then tell how many more you need to get to 100. Eg. a roll of 7 and 2. The answer would be 58 (100- the product 42).

Target 1000

Needed Materials: One 6-sided die, a piece of paper and writing utensil for each player.

1. Each game consists of 10 rolls (5 each) so each player numbers their papers from 1 to 5.

2. The die is rolled (take turns) and each person decides separately whether to multiply the die face by 1, 10, or 100. The number sentence each student chose is recorded on his sheet of paper.

3. Players continue to roll, multiply, and record the number sentences until all 10 spaces have been filled. (Each player will have rolled 5 times.)

4. Each player finds the sum of his products. The winner is the one whose sum is closer to 1000 (over or under).

Falling Between

4 players (or adapt). Each player draws 1 card and lays it down. This becomes the target number. Eg. 4, 3, 1, 7 becomes 4,317. Each player then draws 4 cards from the deck. Each player must now arrange their cards to get as close to the target number as possible over or under. Once the numbers have been committed to paper, they cannot be changed. Whoever is closest to the target, wins the game.

Next Month we start drilling multiplication facts! Are you ready?