5th Grade Math Games for the Whole Class to Play Orally
- Daily oral math involves quizzing the entire classroom using simple, theme-based word problems. For example, an instructor planning a lesson around the Thanksgiving holiday might present the problem, "Four boys and four girls are playing Pilgrims in the Thanksgiving play. Five boys and four girls are playing Native Americans. How many students are playing people?" Each student in turn then must follow these steps to analyze the problem: choose the operation — addition, subtraction, division or multiplication — that is best, pick a strategy to solve the problem, repeat the problem and then give a possible solution. It can be helpful to give each student a worksheet handout to follow along with each step. Then ask a question that builds on the previous one, for example: "Two students are playing deer in the play, and one is playing a turkey. How many more students are playing people than are playing animals?" Repeat the operation, strategy, problem and answer process until you've answered all prepared questions.
- Brainteasers can be a fun way to challenge students' thinking in a classroom setting. Many educational websites such as Discovery Education offer examples of brainteasers focusing on different content areas, like spatial awareness or reasoning, which are both important aspects of fifth grade learning goals. To extend brainteasers from individual contemplation to overall class participation, the instructor can write the opening lines or diagrams of the brainteaser for the entire class to view, and then discuss step-by-step methods they can use to solve the puzzle. One example instructors can use is the "mystery number" game, in which students must determine what specific number has the qualities of certain mystery clues that describe its properties.
- Teachers can explain ratios to fifth grade students by playing ratio "basketball." Have students line up about three to five feet away from a wastepaper basket and ask each student, each getting one turn, to attempt to toss a small, foam ball into the empty wastebasket. Tally up how many times the ball goes into the wastebasket and how many times it misses. Then draw a chart on the board for the students, showing the rate of misses and completed shots to the total number of shots made. The teacher can then quiz the students on how they can convert those ratios into decimals and back into fractions -- without using a calculator, of course.
- Using a game show format encompasses a variety of concepts that fifth graders should be learning, rather than focusing on one core learning target. Teachers can create questions, or they can ask students to submit different questions prior to the day of the game. Students are then split up into teams, or the instructor can choose to have individual students answer questions, but all correct answers are used toward a team total. The team with the most points by the end of the class period or the instructor's allotted lesson time wins.
