Make math a fun activity for fifth graders while helping them improve their math reasoning skills. Pair up your students. Divide a deck of cards into suits and give each pair of children one suit. Depending on how many students you have, you may need more than one deck of cards. Tell the students to place the cards face up in a row on the table, arranged from lowest to highest with ace low. The students can take turns picking up cards beginning with the lowest. They may choose whether to pick up one or two cards. The object of the game is to take the last card. After the match is over, have your students discuss why they won or lost based on their strategic moves. This game will allow them to build up their reasoning and critical thinking skills while having fun in a friendly competition.
Choose math problems and topics that fit your students' current ability level. Write the same problem on the blackboard in two different places and ask for two student volunteers who will come up and solve it. The first student who correctly solves the math problem while showing all of his or her work is the winner. Students can earn points, and you can award individuals with the most points a prize at the end of the day. In order to cultivate a supportive environment, allow the class to help the students working on the problem at the board and give students points for helping their classmates.
Assign your students a book to read and a deadline by which to have finished it. Choose a book that has been made into a high-quality film and that is at the appropriate reading and content level for fifth graders. Tell your students that on the day of the deadline, you will give a quiz with questions to test their knowledge of the plot and characters. As a further incentive, tell your students that if everyone has read the book, they will be rewarded with a movie party in which everyone will watch the film, eat snacks and talk about the story. In this way, you can encourage camaraderie and responsibility in your fifth graders while providing an enjoyable venue for literary analysis.
Help your fifth graders view reading as an enjoyable activity that they should turn to in their leisure time. Have the class help you construct a large pyramid out of construction paper. Divide the pyramid into sections and assign a number of pages to each section. The top of the pyramid should indicate the highest number of pages. Ask other teachers if they would like to participate as well. Tell your students that you will be competing with other classes to see who can reach the top of the pyramid first. Give students reading sheets so that they can record how many pages they read in their leisure time. Mark the level of the pyramid that your class reaches collectively every day so that they associate a sense of accomplishment and camaraderie with recreational reading.