Worksheet Grade 5 Math

Larkin Family Farm's Stock Tank: A Grade 5 Volume and Cube Worksheet

A grade 5 worksheet where students count unit cubes and apply the volume formula to size a fictional farm's cattle stock tank and irrigation reservoir tank.

Grade: Grade 5
Subject: Math
Material: Worksheet
Time: 35 min
Prep: No prep
Materials: Calculator (optional), Isometric or grid paper for sketching the tanks (optional)

Standards

5.MD.C.4 Common Core Math

Measure volumes by counting unit cubes, using cubic cm, cubic in, cubic ft, and improvised units.

How this material aligns: Students count layers of unit cubes to measure the stock tank's volume in cubic feet before checking that count against a formula.

All materials for 5.MD.C.4 →

5.MD.C.5 Common Core Math

Relate volume to the operations of multiplication and addition and solve real world and mathematical problems involving volume, including applying the formulas V = l x w x h and V = b x h for rectangular prisms.

How this material aligns: Students apply V = l x w x h to two tank designs and convert both volumes to gallons to compare their capacity.

All materials for 5.MD.C.5 →

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This material is in the public domain (CC0) and may be copied, edited, and shared freely, without attribution. Updated 2026-07-16.

Objectives

Students will count unit cubes in layers to measure the volume of a rectangular tank.
Students will apply the formula V = l x w x h to confirm a tank's volume.
Students will convert a tank's volume from cubic feet to gallons and compare two tank designs.

Vocabulary

Key words: unit cube, volume, cubic foot, rectangular prism, capacity

Teacher overview

Larkin Family Farm, a fictional farm used for this worksheet, keeps a rectangular stock tank for its cattle and is building a second, larger tank for a drip-irrigation reservoir fed by the farm's well pump. This worksheet starts by having students picture the stock tank packed with 1-foot unit cubes and count them layer by layer, then checks that count against the formula V = l x w x h, the same two ways of finding volume that build on each other in the grade 5 measurement standards.

Larkin Family Farm's Stock Tank: A Grade 5 Volume and Cube Worksheet — Grade 5 Math

Name: ____________________________ Date: ______________

Student Worksheet

The Larkin family's stock tank is a rectangular prism, 4 feet long, 3 feet wide, and 2 feet tall. Picture it packed completely with 1-foot unit cubes.

How many unit cubes fit in one layer of the tank (4 feet long by 3 feet wide)?
Since the tank is 2 feet tall and each unit cube is 1 foot tall, how many layers of unit cubes fill the tank?
How many unit cubes fill the whole tank? What is the tank's volume in cubic feet?
Use the formula V = l x w x h to check your answer to item 3. Show your multiplication.
Convert the stock tank's volume to gallons, using the conversion 7.48 gallons per cubic foot.
The farm is building a second, larger tank for its irrigation reservoir: 5 feet long, 4 feet wide, and 3 feet tall. Find its volume in cubic feet using the formula V = l x w x h.
Convert the irrigation reservoir tank's volume to gallons.
How many more gallons does the irrigation reservoir tank hold than the stock tank?
The farm's well pump fills the empty irrigation reservoir tank at a rate of 6 gallons per minute. About how many minutes would it take to fill the tank completely? Round to the nearest whole minute.
Explain why counting unit cubes and using the formula V = l x w x h give the same answer for the stock tank's volume.

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

Answer Key

Answer: 12 unit cubes.
4 x 3 = 12 unit cubes fit in one layer.
Answer: 2 layers.
The tank is 2 feet tall and each unit cube is 1 foot tall, so 2 layers of cubes fill the tank.
Answer: 24 cu ft.
12 unit cubes per layer x 2 layers = 24 unit cubes, so the volume is 24 cubic feet.
Answer: 24 cu ft.
V = 4 x 3 x 2 = 24 cubic feet, matching the unit-cube count in item 3.
Answer: 179.52 gal.
24 x 7.48 = 179.52 gallons.
Answer: 60 cu ft.
V = 5 x 4 x 3 = 60 cubic feet.
Answer: 448.8 gal.
60 x 7.48 = 448.8 gallons.
Answer: 269.28 gal.
448.8 - 179.52 = 269.28 gallons more in the irrigation reservoir tank.
Answer: 75 min.
448.8 divided by 6 gallons per minute equals 74.8, which rounds to 75 minutes.
Answer: Both methods count the same total space.
Counting unit cubes tallies the exact number of 1-cubic-foot spaces inside the tank, while V = l x w x h multiplies the same three dimensions to reach that same total in one step, so both methods describe the same amount of space and produce the same number.

Differentiation

Support (below grade level)

Provide a printed diagram of the stock tank's bottom layer divided into a 4-by-3 grid of squares so students can count the 12 unit cubes by marking each square, and give a printed conversion card listing "1 cu ft = 7.48 gal."

Extension (above grade level)

Ask students to design a third tank shape that holds the same 60 cubic feet as the irrigation reservoir tank but uses three different whole-number dimensions, then prove their design works by showing the multiplication.

ELL supports

Pre-teach "layer," "unit cube," and "capacity" using a small stack of physical cubes or blocks built into a 2-layer model in front of the class. Provide a sentence frame for item 3: "The tank holds ___ unit cubes, so its volume is ___ cubic feet."