Skip to main content
Minnesota Standards

Minnesota 5th Grade Math Standards

All 40 Minnesota math standards for 5th grade, each explained in plain English. The official wording is in Minnesota Department of Education's document, linked at the end of this page.

40 standards

Data and Probability

7 standards
5.1.1.1
Spot and describe patterns in one data set or across related sets, and pose questions about a topic that collected data can answer.
5.1.1.2
Explain how number data, like heights, differs from category data, like favorite colors, and what the two kinds have in common.
5.1.1.3
Gather and organize data to answer a question, find its mean, median and range, and show it in several displays, including on a computer.
5.1.1.4
Judge what a graph shows, like a double bar graph, line graph or line plot, using mean, median and range to back a claim or solve a problem.
5.1.1.5
Compare two displays of the same data to see how the choice of graph changes what a reader notices and concludes.
5.1.2.1
Record every possible result of a chance experiment, like spinning a four-color spinner, in a frequency table.
5.1.2.2
Tally the results of a chance experiment in a frequency table, use them to predict, and mark each prediction on a number line from 0 to 1.

Spatial Reasoning

7 standards
5.2.3.1
Build and explain area formulas for parallelograms and triangles, then find the area of shapes that split into those pieces.
5.2.3.2
Estimate the area of straight-sided and curved shapes by counting squares or dots on grid or dot paper.
5.2.3.3
Measure volume by filling a space with unit cubes, each a cube 1 unit long on every side that holds one cubic unit.
5.2.3.4
Find the volume and surface area of solids built from unit cubes, using different counting strategies.
5.2.3.5
Fill a box-shaped prism with whole-number sides with unit cubes, and show the count matches length times width times height or base area times height.
5.2.4.1
Sort and describe prisms and pyramids by their features, counting their edges, faces, vertices and bases.
5.2.4.2
Spot, draw and compare different flat nets that fold into prisms, pyramids, cylinders and cones.

Patterns and Relationships

26 standards
5.3.5.1
Multiply multi-digit numbers with a strategy that fits, like splitting a factor or drawing an area model, and explain why it works using place value.
5.3.5.2
Divide multi-digit numbers by 1- or 2-digit divisors, like with partial quotients, and write the answer with a remainder or as a fraction, mixed number or decimal.
5.3.5.3
Decide from a word problem whether a division remainder should be dropped, rounded up, or shown as a fraction or decimal.
5.3.5.4
Solve multi-step word problems with all four operations on multi-digit whole numbers, checking the answer makes sense with inverse operations or a calculator.
5.3.5.5
Make equivalent fractions by multiplying or dividing the top and bottom by the same number, like 2/3 = 8/12, and show why with a picture.
5.3.5.6
Find 0.1, 0.01 or 0.001 more or less than a number in your head, like 2.45 plus 0.01 is 2.46, and show why with a model.
5.3.5.7
Know that each place is worth ten times the place to its right and one tenth of the place to its left.
Common Core 5.NBT.1
5.3.5.8
Switch between fractions and decimals to the thousandths, like 3/8 = 0.375, explaining with models, place value words and symbols.
5.3.5.9
Put decimals to the thousandths in order, like 0.405 is less than 0.45, and explain using place value and models.
5.3.5.10
Estimate fraction and mixed number sums and differences to the nearest half, using benchmarks like 0, 1/2 and 1.
5.3.5.11
Add and subtract fractions and mixed numbers with unlike denominators with ease, like 2/3 + 1/4, explaining with equivalent fractions, models or a number line.
5.3.5.12
Estimate the answer when adding or subtracting decimals, like rounding 3.86 + 2.1 to about 6.
5.3.5.13
Solve word problems that add or subtract positive fractions, mixed numbers or decimals, using pictures, equations and properties of operations.
5.3.5.14
Show a whole number times a fraction, like 3 × 2/5, with a drawing or number line and explain how it shows the product.
5.3.5.15
Model a fraction of a group in a story problem, like 2/3 of 12 cookies, with a drawing or number line and explain how it shows the answer.
5.3.5.16
Model how many groups fit in a total when each group is a fraction, like 3 ÷ 1/4, with a picture and explain how it shows the answer.
5.3.5.17
Solve multi-step word problems that add and subtract positive fractions and decimals, checking the answer makes sense with inverse operations and the story.
5.3.5.18
Use the four operations to compare ways to pay and get paid, like checks, credit cards, debit cards and online payments, and weigh the pros and cons.
5.3.5.19
Use the four operations to plan a personal or group budget from wants and needs, and explore how debt works and how it adds up over time.
5.3.6.1
Use number sense to find a missing value in fraction or decimal addition and subtraction equations, like 1.5 + ? = 1.4 + 0.7, and tell true ones from false.
5.3.6.2
Make and defend claims about expressions with parentheses and all four operations, rewriting them in equal forms by breaking apart and regrouping numbers.
5.3.7.1
Use a rule or table to make ordered pairs of positive whole numbers and plot them on a coordinate grid.
5.3.7.2
Compare two number patterns made from given rules, like add 3 and add 6, and explain how they relate using tables or graphed points.
5.3.7.3
Plot points with whole or half number values in the first quadrant to show a real situation, and explain what each point's coordinates mean.
5.3.7.4
Solve problems with whole-number ratio tables by adding and multiplying, and think of multiplication as scaling, like 3 times as many.
5.3.7.5
Write a rule linking a growing picture pattern's figure number to how many items it has, and use it to find the count in any figure n.

The official Minnesota documents

The plain-English lines on this page are EMStudio's own explanations of Minnesota's standards, not the official wording, which Minnesota Department of Education publishes in the documents above. Codes and strand names identify each standard.