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Worksheet Grade 5 Math

Bellhollow Fen Storm Ditch: A Grade 5 Metric Conversion Worksheet

A grade 5 worksheet converting millimeters, centimeters, meters, and milliliters using a fictional nature preserve's rain records and grass drainage ditch.

Objectives

  1. Students will convert between millimeters, centimeters, meters, and kilometers.
  2. Students will convert between milliliters and liters using place value.
  3. Students will use a completed conversion inside a multi-step subtraction problem.

Vocabulary

Key words: millimeter, centimeter, meter, milliliter, ditch

Teacher overview

Bellhollow Fen Preserve is a fictional nature preserve where rain from the parking lot runs into a grassy ditch before it reaches the marsh. The staff there record rainfall in millimeters, measure the ditch in meters, and collect water samples in milliliters, so they convert units almost every day. This worksheet uses one week of those records to practice moving between metric units of length and of liquid volume. The misconception it targets is the belief that a larger unit always goes with a larger number, which leads students to write 35 millimeters as 350 centimeters instead of 3.5 centimeters.

Bellhollow Fen Storm Ditch: A Grade 5 Metric Conversion Worksheet — Grade 5 Math
Name: ____________________________ Date: ______________

Student Worksheet

Use the records from Bellhollow Fen Preserve. Remember that 10 millimeters make 1 centimeter, 100 centimeters make 1 meter, and 1,000 meters make 1 kilometer. Also remember that 1,000 milliliters make 1 liter.

  • Rain gauge: Monday 35 millimeters, Tuesday 8 millimeters, Wednesday 140 millimeters.
  • The grass ditch is 240 meters long. The staff repaired 85 meters of it.
  • Each sample jar holds 250 milliliters. The staff filled 6 jars.
  • The tank on the preserve truck holds 15 liters.
  1. Monday's rain was 35 millimeters. How many centimeters is that?
  2. Tuesday's rain was 8 millimeters. How many centimeters is that?
  3. Add Monday's rain and Tuesday's rain. Give the total in millimeters.
  4. Write that two-day total in centimeters.
  5. Wednesday's rain was 140 millimeters. How many centimeters is that?
  6. The ditch is 240 meters long. How many centimeters is that?
  7. The staff repaired 85 meters of the 240-meter ditch. How many meters are still unrepaired?
  8. On Friday the staff walked 1,500 meters along the ditch. How many kilometers is that?
  9. Each jar holds 250 milliliters, and the staff filled 6 jars. How many milliliters did they collect in all?
  10. Write that sample total in liters.
  11. The truck tank holds 15 liters. The staff poured in 1.5 liters of samples. How many more liters would fill the tank?
  12. Explain why 35 millimeters and 3.5 centimeters are the same length.

From Water for Schools (waterforschools.org). This material is in the public domain (CC0) and may be copied, edited, and shared freely.

Answer Key
  1. Answer: 3.5 centimeters. Divide by 10 because 10 millimeters make 1 centimeter: 35 divided by 10 = 3.5 centimeters.
  2. Answer: 0.8 centimeters. 8 divided by 10 = 0.8 centimeters.
  3. Answer: 43 millimeters. 35 + 8 = 43 millimeters.
  4. Answer: 4.3 centimeters. 43 divided by 10 = 4.3 centimeters.
  5. Answer: 14 centimeters. 140 divided by 10 = 14 centimeters.
  6. Answer: 24,000 centimeters. Each meter is 100 centimeters, so 240 x 100 = 24,000 centimeters.
  7. Answer: 155 meters. 240 - 85 = 155 meters.
  8. Answer: 1.5 kilometers. Divide by 1,000 because 1,000 meters make 1 kilometer: 1,500 divided by 1,000 = 1.5 kilometers.
  9. Answer: 1,500 milliliters. 250 x 6 = 1,500 milliliters.
  10. Answer: 1.5 liters. 1,500 divided by 1,000 = 1.5 liters.
  11. Answer: 13.5 liters. 15 - 1.5 = 13.5 liters still needed to fill the tank.
  12. Answer: A millimeter is one tenth of a centimeter, so 35 millimeters is 35 tenths, and 35 tenths is the same as 3 whole centimeters and 5 tenths, written 3.5 centimeters.

Differentiation

Support

Give students a metric staircase chart with millimeter, centimeter, meter, and kilometer on separate steps, and mark each step with the phrase "multiply going down, divide going up." Work item 1 together, then have students point to the two steps involved before they compute items 2 and 5.

Extension

Ask students to write two new rain-gauge readings for Thursday and Friday so that the five-day total comes to exactly 25 centimeters, then show the addition in millimeters that proves their two readings work.

ELL supports

Provide a labeled ruler showing millimeters and centimeters side by side, and a marked measuring cup showing milliliters and liters. Pre-teach the prefixes "milli-" and "kilo-" with the plain meanings "one thousandth" and "one thousand," and offer a sentence frame for item 12: "35 millimeters equals 3.5 centimeters because ___."

Extensions

Have students set a rain gauge outside the classroom, record the depth in millimeters after each storm for two weeks, and keep a second column showing the same depth in centimeters. At the end of the two weeks, ask them to total both columns and confirm that the two totals describe the same amount of rain.