Description
What our Order of Operations lesson plan includes
Lesson Objectives and Overview: Order of Operations demonstrates how to simplify and solve problems by identifying and using the order of operations correctly. Capitalize on peer learning as students create their own order of operations equations for another student to solve, which strengthens the ability to identify inaccuracies. At the end of the lesson, students will be able to apply the order of operations to mathematical expressions. This lesson is for students in 5th grade and 6th grade.
Classroom Procedure
Every lesson plan provides you with a classroom procedure page that outlines a step-by-step guide to follow. You do not have to follow the guide exactly. The guide helps you organize the lesson and details when to hand out worksheets. It also lists information in the blue box that you might find useful. You will find the lesson objectives, state standards, and number of class sessions the lesson should take to complete in this area. In addition, it describes the supplies you will need as well as what and how you need to prepare beforehand.
Options for Lesson
Included with this lesson is an “Options for Lesson” section that lists a number of suggestions for activities to add to the lesson or substitutions for the ones already in the lesson. One optional addition to this lesson is to put problems around the room for your students to find and solve like a scavenger hunt. You could also have your students make their own triangle problems for homework or an activity extension and then swap them to solve. For a more physical activity, you could have your students do a relay race at the board in teams to see who can solve problems the fastest and most accurate. Finally, you could have your students do a relay where each person has to complete only one step in the order of operations for each problem and see which team wins.
Teacher Notes
The teacher notes page includes lines that you can use to add your own notes as you’re preparing for this lesson.
ORDER OF OPERATIONS LESSON PLAN CONTENT PAGES
Order of Operations
The Order of Operations lesson plan includes two content pages. The Order of Operations is the order that you complete the operations in an expression. All scientists and mathematicians use the same order to answer problems. Solving expressions in a different order can lead to different (and incorrect) answers.
Let’s look at an example. Say you and a friend both solve the problem 5 + 4 * 3. You get the answer 17 and your friend gets the answer 27. When you solved the problem, you multiplied 4 * 3 first: 5 + 4 * 3 = 5 + 12 = 17. Your friend added 5 + 4 first: 5 + 4 * 3 = 9 * 3 = 27.
Both of you completed each individual mathematical operation correctly, but solving the problem in a different order gave you different answers. The correct way to solve the problem is to use the order of operations.
In the Order of Operations, the first step is operations with grouping symbols (parentheses or brackets). Second is powers or exponents. Next is multiplication or division from left to right. The final step is addition or subtraction from left to right.
When you consider these rules, your answer to the example problem was correct!
Let’s look at another example: 4 + 5 x 6 ÷ 10. There are no grouping symbols or exponents, so you start with multiplication and division from left to right, followed by addition and subtraction: 4 + 5 x 6 ÷ 10 = 4 + 30 ÷ 10 = 4 + 3 = 7.
The lesson closes with a few more examples that include grouping symbols and parentheses. It walks students through solving these problems step-by-step using the Order of Operations.
ORDER OF OPERATIONS LESSON PLAN WORKSHEETS
The Order of Operations lesson plan includes four worksheets: an activity worksheet, a practice worksheet, a homework assignment, and a quiz. You can refer to the guide on the classroom procedure page to determine when to hand out each worksheet.
TRIANGLE ACTIVITY WORKSHEET
The activity worksheet asks students to assemble a paper triangle where the sides that are touching have a problem and its answer.
SIMPLIFY PRACTICE WORKSHEET
For the practice worksheet, students will simplify problems using the order of operations.
ORDER OF OPERATIONS HOMEWORK ASSIGNMENT
The homework assignment asks students to roll a dice or flip over cards to create numbers for the problems on the worksheet. They will then evaluate each problem.
QUIZ
This lesson also includes a quiz that you can use to test students’ understanding of the lesson material. For the quiz, students will simplify problems using the order of operations, making sure to show all of their steps.
Worksheet Answer Keys
This lesson plan includes answer keys for the practice worksheet and the quiz. If you choose to administer the lesson pages to your students via PDF, you will need to save a new file that omits these pages. Otherwise, you can simply print out the applicable pages and keep these as reference for yourself when grading assignments.
