Worksheet Grade 5 Math
Willowbend Creek Rain Gauges: A Grade 5 Fraction Line Plot Worksheet
A grade 5 worksheet where students build a line plot from a fictional creek monitoring club's fractional rain-gauge readings, then divide a unit fraction among stations.
Objectives
- Students will build a line plot from a data set of measurements in fourths of an inch.
- Students will use a line plot to answer questions about the mode, range, and count of a data set.
- Students will divide a unit fraction evenly among a whole number of stations.
Vocabulary
Key words: line plot, mode, range, unit fraction
Teacher overview
A student water-monitoring club along Willowbend Creek, a fictional creek used for this worksheet, placed eight rain gauges before a storm to see how much rainfall different parts of the watershed received. This worksheet has students build a line plot from those eight fractional readings, use the plot to answer questions about the data, and then divide a small amount of gauge-cleaning solution evenly among several stations, the same kind of unit-fraction division the grade 5 standards pair with line plot work.
Student Worksheet
The Willowbend Creek monitoring club recorded these eight rain-gauge readings, in inches: 1/4, 1/4, 1/4, 1/4, 1/2, 1/2, 3/4, 1.
- Draw a number line from 0 to 1 1/4, marked in fourths. Build a line plot by placing an X above the number line for each of the eight readings.
- How many gauges recorded exactly 1/4 inch of rain?
- How many gauges recorded 1/2 inch of rain or more?
- What is the difference between the highest reading and the lowest reading?
- Which reading is the mode (the value that appears most often) on the line plot?
- The club has 1/2 cup of a leaf-debris clearing solution to split evenly among the four gauges that recorded 1/4 inch of rain. How much solution does each of those four gauges get?
- A ninth gauge is added later with a reading of 1/2 inch. Describe how the line plot's column above 1/2 inch would change.
- Explain why a line plot is a useful way to show rain-gauge data when several gauges record the same reading.
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: line plot with 8 Xs.
Four Xs stack above 1/4, two Xs stack above 1/2, one X sits above 3/4, and one X sits above 1, matching the eight readings in the data set. - Answer: 4 gauges.
The data set lists 1/4 four times. - Answer: 4 gauges.
Two gauges read 1/2, one read 3/4, and one read 1, for a total of four gauges at 1/2 inch or more. - Answer: 3/4 in.
The highest reading is 1 inch and the lowest is 1/4 inch. 1 - 1/4 = 3/4 inch. - Answer: 1/4 in.
1/4 inch appears four times, more often than any other value on the line plot. - Answer: 1/8 cup.
1/2 cup divided by 4 gauges equals 1/2 x 1/4 = 1/8 cup for each gauge. - Answer: the 1/2 column would gain an X.
The column above 1/2 inch would now have three Xs stacked above it instead of two, since the new gauge's reading joins the two existing 1/2-inch readings. - Answer: it shows repeated values clearly.
Stacking Xs above each value lets a reader see instantly which readings repeated and how often, which would be harder to notice from a plain list of eight fractions.
Differentiation
Support (below grade level)
Provide a printed number line already marked in fourths from 0 to 1 1/4, and give students the eight readings pre-sorted from least to greatest before they place their Xs.
Extension (above grade level)
Ask students to find the total rainfall collected by all eight gauges by adding the readings together, then explain whether that total is more useful to the club than any single gauge's reading.
ELL supports
Pre-teach "line plot," "mode," and "range" using a simple picture of stacked X marks above a labeled number line. Provide a sentence frame for item 5: "The mode of the data set is ___ inch, because it appears ___ times."