Utah Standards
Utah 5th Grade Math Standards
All 34 Utah math standards for 5th grade, each explained in plain English. The official wording is in Utah State Board of Education's document, linked at the end of this page.
34 standards
Mathematical Practices
8 standards5.MP.1
Make sense of multi-step problems with fractions and decimals, plan a path, try another if it stalls, and check whether answers are reasonable, like estimating 3.9 x 2.1 as about 8.
5.MP.2
Move between real situations and expressions, like writing three times the sum of 12 and 8 for three bags of 12 red and 8 blue beads, and know what the symbols mean.
5.MP.3
Justify claims with models and diagrams, like why multiplying by 3/4 makes a number smaller, and question and build on the reasoning of others.
5.MP.4
Model real situations with math, like a fraction model for sharing 3 pizzas among 4 friends or a volume formula for a box, and draw conclusions.
5.MP.5
Pick useful tools, like rulers, unit cubes, coordinate grids, fraction models, or estimation, and use them to solve problems with fractions, decimals, and volume.
5.MP.6
Communicate precisely with terms like numerator, volume, and coordinates, label cubic units, and calculate with decimals and fractions accurately.
5.MP.7
Use structure to solve problems, like seeing a sum that is tripled as three times as big as the sum, or seeing place value shift when multiplying by 10.
5.MP.8
Notice patterns that repeat, like zeros added when multiplying by powers of 10, generalize them into shortcuts, and check intermediate results along the way.
Operations and Algebraic Thinking
3 standards5.OA.1
Evaluate expressions with parentheses and other grouping symbols, like 3 × (4 + 2), working inside the symbols first.
5.OA.2
Write simple expressions to record calculations, like adding 5 and 9 and then doubling, and interpret expressions without computing, like seeing three times a sum as three times as big.
5.OA.3
Build two number patterns from two rules, compare their matching terms, and graph the pairs as points on a coordinate grid.
Number and Operations in Base Ten
7 standards5.NBT.1
Know that each place is worth ten times the place to its right and one tenth of the place to its left.
5.NBT.2
Explain how the zeros and the decimal point move when a number is multiplied or divided by a power of 10, and write powers of 10 with exponents.
5.NBT.3
Read and write decimals to thousandths, like 347.392, in words and expanded form, and compare two decimals digit by digit.
5.NBT.5
Multiply multi-digit whole numbers, like 346 × 27, fluently with the standard algorithm.
5.NBT.6
Divide up to four-digit numbers by two-digit numbers with place-value strategies, and show the thinking with equations, arrays or area models.
5.NBT.7
Do all four operations with decimals to hundredths using models and place value, explain the method, divide only with one whole number, and predict how big a quotient is.
Number and Operations—Fractions
7 standards5.NF.1
Add and subtract fractions and mixed numbers with unlike denominators by rewriting them with a common denominator, like 2/3 + 1/4 using twelfths.
5.NF.2
Solve real-world problems adding and subtracting fractions of the same whole, including unlike denominators, and use benchmarks like 1/2 to estimate and check if answers make sense.
5.NF.3
Interpret a fraction as the top number divided by the bottom, like 3/4 = 3 ÷ 4, and solve sharing problems with fraction or mixed-number answers, like 5 pizzas among 4 people.
5.NF.4
Multiply a fraction by a whole number or by another fraction, like 2/3 × 4/5 = 8/15, and find the area of a rectangle with fractional sides.
5.NF.5
Treat multiplying as scaling, telling how a product compares to one factor without computing, and explain why a fraction above 1 makes a number larger and below 1 smaller.
5.NF.6
Solve real-world problems that multiply fractions and mixed numbers, like finding 2/3 of 1 1/2 cups, using fraction models or equations.
5.NF.7
Divide a unit fraction by a whole number or a whole number by a unit fraction, like 1/2 ÷ 3 = 1/6 and 3 ÷ 1/4 = 12, using models and multiplication, and solve real-world problems.
Measurement and Data
5 standards5.MD.1
Convert between larger and smaller units in the same measurement system, like 250 cm = 2.5 m, and use conversions in multi-step real-world problems.
5.MD.2
Make a line plot of measurements in halves, quarters, and eighths, and use fraction operations to solve problems with its data, like evening out water among beakers.
5.MD.3
Understand volume as the space inside a solid, measured by how many unit cubes fill it without gaps or overlaps.
5.MD.4
Measure volume by counting unit cubes, in cubic centimeters, cubic inches, cubic feet or made-up units.
5.MD.5
Find the volume of a box-shaped prism with the formulas V = l × w × h and V = b × h, and add up the volumes of two prisms joined together.
Geometry
4 standards5.G.1
Explain how two perpendicular number lines form a coordinate plane with the origin at zero, and locate points in the first quadrant with ordered pairs, x first then y.
5.G.2
Graph real-world data as points in the first quadrant of a coordinate grid and explain what each point’s coordinates mean.
5.G.3
Explain that features of a shape category belong to all its subcategories, like all squares having opposite sides parallel because they are parallelograms.
5.G.4
Sort two-dimensional shapes into a hierarchy by their properties, like quadrilaterals, then parallelograms, then rectangles, then squares.
The official Utah documents
- Utah Core State Standards for Mathematics, Elementary Levels K-5 · adopted 2010, revised April 2016 · current for 2026-27, revision under way
The plain-English lines on this page are EMStudio's own explanations of Utah's standards, not the official wording, which Utah State Board of Education publishes in the documents above. Codes and strand names identify each standard.