There is something about geometry standards that I just love to teach! I feel like I love every math topic and I probably do, but the volume of prisms is something special. This is the unit when I see my students gain excitement and have all the lightbulb moments. Typically I have a few students who claim they hate math and that it’s really hard and boring. But in the volume of prisms unit, those students change their tune. They start to like math!
Volume for 5th Grade is one of 2 geometry units that I teach. The other unit is more about quadrilaterals and types of triangles. Today, I’m just focusing on the volume of prisms.
While the volume of prisms is already a hands-on topic, I’m sharing my favorite ways to make it even more interactive for your students!
Volume of Prisms Manipulatives
With any math concept, I like to start with the foundation. Making math as hands-on as possible is key to keeping students excited and engaged, especially in the upper elementary and middle school standards. I’ve linked some of my favorite math manipulatives for the volume of prisms below.
General Volume for 5th Grade Teaching Tips
In general, keep your unit short and sweet. The volume for 5th grade standards relies on concrete understanding, vocabulary, and the formula. Composite volume is also a key common core standard. Make sure you build to all the standards in a logical order.
Let students explore volume. To gain a rich understanding of the volume of prisms, students need to explore what volume is. Use manipulatives and let kids build. This is a very hands-on unit, so let the messy block building happen.
Explain the difference between area, perimeter, and volume. While area and perimeter are covered in the lower grades, still include both in your volume for 5th grade unit. Talking about word problems and the application of all 3 is important to gain that deeper understanding. If you want to learn more about how to solve math word problems, be sure to check out this blog post.
Build to the formula. Hands-on is the best place to start but don’t stop there. Make sure that students walk away with a deeper understanding of volume AND be able to use the formula. The middle school math teachers will thank you!
Make your unit fun! There is nothing worse than a boring math unit. Let students play games, use math stations, and utilize projects. If you are looking to start math learning centers, check out this blog post. I lay out all the information on starting stations and give you lots of math station rotation ideas to get started. I also have a 5 part video series all about transforming your math classroom from frustrating to fun! Just drop your email below and the video series will be sent to your inbox!
Volume of Prisms Curriculum
Once you have the manipulatives, we need a good foundation for teaching. I don’t have a set curriculum so I made my own! This one has all of the main pieces that I need while still being student-focused.
This unit has a bunch of different worksheets for notes, homework, tests, quizzes, study guide, exit tickets, and data tracking sheets! Everything you need to teach for 8 days!
- Fill in the blank notes with short videos (5-10 minutes) to match the notes sheet. These are perfect for a flipped classroom or for absent students.
- Worksheets on Volume of Rectangular Prisms for homework or guided practice. These also make easy, independent work for math station ideas.
- Math Exit Tickets for each day of notes are included. They are available in 3 different forms: paper slips, Google Slides to present to the class, and Google Forms for self-grading.
- A mid-unit quiz
- Study Guide to review your entire volume of prisms unit
- 2 Versions of the Test for retake options or they can be used for a pretest and post-test data point
- Data Tracking Spreadsheets for simple data tracking on exit tickets, assessments, or Common Core Standards
If you want to know more about the unit, click here to be taken to my TPT shop.
Volume for 5th Grade Actvities
Now that you have a volume of prisms unit to teach from, let’s add some fun! I do a few different lessons during the unit to shake things up and keep students excited.
Learning Labs
I put those manipulatives that we talked about above to good use with these learning labs. Like a science lab, students follow directions that lead them to learn and explore the volume of prisms.
One of the labs I do is about discovering what volume is so I use a boatload of cubes and have students have at it. Letting students build 3-D models and determining how many cubes they used to build their creation shows them what volume means.
The second lab I do in my volume for 5th grade unit is to bridge the gap between counting cubes and the geometry formula. This lab is always a hit and students see the reason behind using the formula. This also makes an awesome lesson to be observed on 😉
If you want to see more about learning labs, check out this bundle of activities on my TPT shop.
Choice Board Templates
This is a quick math station rotation idea or uses in place of an assessment. I like to give students choice in their learning so choice board templates are an easy way to do that. These choice board prompts are ready to assign to your students. However, they are only available in this bundle! I have that product linked here if you are looking for blank digital choice board templates.
If you want to see more about choice board templates in action, be sure to check out this blog post!
Error Analysis for Volume of Prisms
Helping students learn to find mistakes is such a huge blessing in the math classroom. Whether it is when they solve math word problems or just answering a 5th grade math problem, students need to know how to check their work. These worksheets on volume of rectangular prisms help students identify mistakes in others’ work. Check out the resource here.
Want to know how I teach how to solve math word problems? This blog post has all the answers.
Games for Geometry
It’s no secret that I love using math learning centers in my classroom. I’m always looking for new math games and this set is perfect for leaving out year-round. Dice games for kids but make it the volume of prisms. Students roll a dice or 2 and create their own volume problems to solve. Students can choose to use the formula (once we learn it) or to use their hands and build the prism. The differentiation is key for a student centered learning classroom.
Solve Math Word Problems in Geometry
This math station rotation idea is so much fun and the best part is that students are practicing volume of prisms AND word problems. It’s a win-win situation! Check out this blog post where I go more in-depth about how to solve math word problems.
If you want to purchase the word problems in geometry game, grab them here!
Digital Task Cards & Worksheets on Volume of Rectangular Prisms
Looking for an independent practice task or gearing up for a sub day? I still use digital task cards in my classroom for these reasons! They are easy to assign to students digitally, but if you want a more hands-on approach, paper-pencil task cards are included too. Check out the digital task cards for the volume of prisms here.
Want to see ways I use task cards in my classroom? Check out this blog post where I dive into how to use task cards for math.
Looking for more ideas on how to teach volume of prisms?
Make your volume of prisms unit engaging and exciting with these ideas! I’ve rounded up my favorite blog posts that are full of ideas and activities for your volume for 5th grade unit.
- Teaching Volume of Rectangular Prisms– I love the visuals in this post
- Volume of Rectangular Prisms– This is an entire lesson plan all about volume of prisms
- 9 Volume of Prisms Activities Your Students Will Love– escape rooms are always a fun go to activity
- Teaching Volume with Hands-On Activities– use sugar cubes to show volume!
- Can’t Miss Easy STEM Challenges– the popcorn volume challenge is so fun and delicious!
- Understanding the Concept of Volume of a Rectangular Prism– letting kids build their own models out of paper
- 5 Tips for Teaching Volume– number 3 is so key!
I’d love to hear about your volume of prisms unit! What’s your favorite activity? How do you make it fun while still rigorous? Drop your responses in the comments!
[…] minds-on is my strategy with volume for 5th grade but also for algebra. Using index cards, physical manipulatives and even simplifying moving around […]