5th Grade Math Early Finisher Packet: 30 Activities

A 5th grader who finishes early needs something to do that is still math and that they can start without asking.

This is an early finisher packet 5th grade students can work through alone: thirty activities, one per page, that a student can pick up without asking.

What is in the packet

• 39 pages, thirty activities. One activity per page, so a finished page is a clear stopping point.
• Twelve kinds of activity. The thirty pages repeat twelve formats, the same twelve used in the 3rd and 4th grade packets, pitched at 5th grade math.
• Decimals, reasoning, and multi-step work. Decimal magic squares, logic grids, cross-numbers, error analysis, and two-step challenges.
• No prep, answer keys included. Print, put the pages in a folder, and check finished work against the keys.

The packet is $6.95 on Teachers Pay Teachers.

Sample activities

Five of the formats, and what each one asks of a 5th grader.

Decimal magic squares

Every row, column and diagonal has to reach the same total, and here the numbers are decimals. The work is lining up place value, and a student who adds tenths to hundredths finds out quickly, because the row stops matching.

Logic grids

A few clues and one answer that fits all of them. Logic grids ask a student to reason in order and hold several conditions at once, the same habit that multi-step problems depend on.

Cross-numbers

A crossword where the answers are numbers. Each answer shares digits with the ones that cross it, so a single wrong computation shows up as a clash, and the student goes back to find it.

Error analysis

A worked problem that went wrong somewhere. The student finds the step and fixes it, which means reading each step of someone else's work.

Two-step challenges

Problems that need a plan before any computing starts. The student decides which two operations the problem needs and in what order, then does them.

Early finisher math activities 5th grade

Most early finisher math activities for 5th grade are ideas: a choice board, a puzzle book, a game in the back of the room. They work when someone has set them up. What a 5th grade room needs every day is early finisher worksheets 5th grade students can start without asking, that count as practice, and that take a minute to check.

A folder of one-page activities covers that, with a short routine:

• Finished work goes in the tray first.
• Then the student takes the next page from the early finisher folder.
• Finished early finisher pages go in the same tray, and you check them against the keys when you have a minute.

Keep the routine the same every day for the first week, and after that it runs without reminders. The math early finishers page covers the same routine for every grade from kindergarten to 5th, and the 4th grade early finisher packet is there for a student who needs a step back. On the days you are out, the 5th grade math sub plans end each day with an early finisher page of their own.

3rd-5th bundle

The 3rd-5th bundle is 117 pages: ninety one-page activities, thirty per grade for 3rd, 4th, and 5th, with the same twelve kinds of activity in every folder. It is $14.95, against $20.85 for the three grades bought separately.

It suits a departmentalized team, a resource room, or a 5th grade class with a wide spread, where a student who needs easier numbers can take a 4th or 3rd grade page in a format they already know.