The cumulative progress indicators for grade 8 appear below in boldface type. Each indicator is followed by activities which illustrate how it can be addressed in the classroom in grades 5 and 6. Fifth and sixth grade students have calculators available to them at all times, but frequently engage in competitions to see whether it is faster to do a given set of computations with the calculators or with the mental math techniques they've learned. Fifth graders make rectangular arrays with base-ten blocks to try to figure out how to predict how many square foot tiles they will need to tile a 17' by 23' kitchen floor. Last year's yield was an average of 208.3 oranges per tree.
Students play multiplication max out .
One student rolls a die and everyone must write the number showing into one of the blanks. Once a number is written, it cannot be moved. Another roll-another number written, and so on. The object is to be the player with the largest product when all four digits have been written. If a player has the largest possible product that can be made from the four digits rolled, there is a bonus for maxing out .