Please note: Although a few of these lessons address fourth-grade standards, we have found that, particularly during the current pandemic crisis, many teachers are still working to help their students master earlier standards such as adding fractions.
Select any link for lesson plans addressing a specific standard
English/ Language Arts
MATHEMATICS
Social Studies
Decimals
CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.5.NBT.B.7 Add, subtract, multiply, and divide decimals to hundredths
- Decimals, epidemics and fly vomit – Learn decimals while weighing a flies and the food they eat. The lesson begins with a game on decimals and the Aztec smallpox epidemic, then moves to another disease spreader – flies. Students learn the role flies play in our ecosystem, how they eat and reproduce.
Division
CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.5.NBT.A.1 Recognize that in a multi-digit number, a digit in one place represents 10 times as much as it represents in the place to its right and 1/10 of what it represents in the place to its left.
CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.5.NBT.B.5 Fluently multiply multi-digit whole numbers using the standard algorithm.
- Watch out for blood-sucking fishes – This lesson introduces new science vocabulary words, teaches about indigenous and invasive species and includes a couple of math problems showing how quickly invasive species multiply. It concludes with students playing the Making Camp Dakota: Past and Present game, dividing their tribe into hunting parties. This is the ninth in a 10-unit English/ Language Arts unit centered around a visit to their grandmother that integrates English/ Language Arts and indigenous history.
- Buffalo Hunts and Division – Begin with a video on long division (optional) or a presentation on uses of division from the playground to the buffalo hunt. Watch a short video working long division problems. Finish with practicing long division in Making Camp Dakota. Short videos on Dakota buffalo hunt traditions and related math lessons are also linked.
FRACTIONS
CCSS.Math.Content.5.NF.A.2 Solve word problems involving addition and subtraction of fractions referring to the same whole, including cases of unlike denominators, e.g., by using visual fraction models or equations to represent the problem. Use benchmark fractions and number sense of fractions to estimate mentally and assess the reasonableness of answers.
- Using Visual Models To Compare Fractions – comparing fractions with different numerators and denominators, with the context of a story from Ojibwe history. They create their own problems using visual models to compare fractions. Students discuss classmates’ problems. The lesson culminates with a video on visualization as a problem-solving strategy.
CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.5.NF.B.4 – Apply and extend previous understandings of multiplication to multiply a fraction or whole number by a fraction.
- Multiplying fractions with like denominators – This lesson plan will explore how students can take what they already know about adding fractions with like denominators in order to grasp multiplying fractions with like denominators.
Related lessons: If students need a review of fraction concepts, this Introducing Fractions lesson plan may be useful.
Measurement
CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.5.MD.A.1 Convert among different-sized standard measurement units within a given measurement system (e.g., convert 5 cm to 0.05 m), and use these conversions in solving multi-step, real world problems.
- Decimals, epidemics and fly vomit – Learn decimals while weighing a flies and the food they eat. The lesson begins with a game on decimals and the Aztec smallpox epidemic, then moves to another disease spreader – flies. Students learn the role flies play in our ecosystem, how they eat and reproduce.
Multiplication
CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.5.NBT.B.5 Fluently multiply multi-digit whole numbers using the standard algorithm.
- Multiplying two- and three-digit numbers Students practice multiplication for a few problems, watch a video on using estimation to solve problems, hear a brief presentation from their teacher, solve more practice problems, watch a second video and practice more problems. They end the lesson with a game and a discussion of which strategies proved most useful.
Also, search the mathematics video catalog for additional resources.
English/ Language Arts
- CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.5.6 Describe how a narrator’s or speaker’s point of view influences how events are described.
- CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.5.1 Quote accurately from a text when explaining what the text says explicitly and when drawing inferences from the text.
- CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.5.2 Determine two or more main ideas of a text and explain how they are supported by key details; summarize the text.
- CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RF.5.4 Read with sufficient accuracy and fluency to support comprehension.
- CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.5.4 Determine the meaning of general academic and domain-specific words and phrases in a text relevant to a grade 5 topic or subject area.
The standards above are addressed in the following lessons.
Visiting Grandma: Lesson 1 – Students receive and correct the grammar and spelling in their grandmother’s letter. The lesson ends with playing misspelled words and grammar sections of Making Camp Premium.
Visiting Grandma: Lesson 2 – Students improve the organization of a letter written to their grandmother. The lesson ends with playing WORDS sections from Making Camp Premium.
Dakota Boyhood: Lesson 3 – Students read an informational passage and take a quiz. The lesson ends with playing the LIFE section of Making Camp Lakota to learn more about history of the Great Plains tribes.
Fireball Wand: Lesson 4 – This short lesson is the fourth in a 10-unit English/ Language Arts unit centered around a visit to their grandmother that integrates English/ Language Arts and indigenous history. Once at grandmother’s house, she tells a story about a wizard who created a fireball wand. The student reads the page, answers a quiz.
Vocabulary in the Attic: Lesson 5 – This is the fifth in a 10-unit English/ Language Arts unit centered around a visit to their grandmother that integrates English/ Language Arts and indigenous history. Now at Grandma’s house, the student finds pages torn out of an old dictionary. After using the page to complete a quiz, the student plays a game to teach or reinforce vocabulary.
Venn Diagrams: Lesson 6 – This is the sixth in a 10-unit English/ Language Arts unit centered around a visit to their grandmother that integrates English/ Language Arts and indigenous history. Grandma and her grandchild disagree on their favorite president. After completing a question on the Venn diagram comparing the two presidents, students create their own Venn diagram comparing the two Making Camp games they have played.
Author’s Purpose – This is the seventh in a 10-unit English/ Language Arts unit centered around a visit to grandmother. Teacher gives a brief presentation on author’s purpose and explains the assignment to match terms and examples with the correct purpose. Students apply this information by playing Making Camp Premium and identifying the purpose of the game as a while and/or individual components.
Figurative language and poetry This is the eighth in a 10-unit English/ Language Arts unit centered around a visit to their grandmother that integrates English/ Language Arts and indigenous history. Teacher gives a brief presentation on rhyme schemes and figurative language. Students read a poem and complete a short quiz. Students then play Making Camp Premium to learn more about idioms.
Watch out for blood-sucking fishes – This lesson introduces new science vocabulary words, teaches about indigenous and invasive species and includes a couple of math problems showing how quickly invasive species multiply. It concludes with students playing the Making Camp Dakota: Past and Present game, dividing their tribe into hunting parties. This is the ninth in a 10-unit English/ Language Arts unit centered around a visit to their grandmother that integrates English/ Language Arts and indigenous history.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.5.9
Integrate information from several texts on the same topic in order to write or speak about the subject knowledgeably.
This 40-minute lesson begins with a 20-minute presentation on how indigenous people used plants for medicine and a plant-based diet to insure their health. It ends with 20 minutes of gameplay in Making Camp Premium to help reinforce how plants were used by the Ojibwe, indigenous people living on the Great Plains.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.L.5.5.B Recognize and explain the meaning of common idioms, adages, and proverbs.
Introducing Idioms – This lesson plan helps students recognize and understand idioms and what they are through different examples. Students will be able to understand the meaning of common idioms through an instructive video, idiom book activity, and Making Camp Premium gameplay.
Social Studies
D2.His.13.3-5 Use information about a historical source, including the maker, date, place of origin, intended audience, and purpose to judge the extent to which the source is useful for studying a particular topic.
- Reflections on Ojibwe migration – This lesson begins with a storyboard on the route and major events of the Ojibwe migration. Students then play the Forgotten Trail game, followed by watching a video on map reading. As a group, students reflect on the challenges of the Ojibwe migration, compute the distance for just one segment and convert the distance from miles to kilometers.
ND H.3-5.3, & ND H.3-5.9 Describe North Dakota Native American Essential Understandings. Describe how individuals and groups contributed to North Dakota.
- Introduction to Lakota/Dakota Oral Histories & Storytelling Students read a Lakota story on the end of the world. The teacher gives a short presentation on oral history as used by the Lakota/Dakota. Students play a game with stories from Dakota or Lakota culture. Students present their own examples of oral history in writing or orally. Assessment is in oral or written presentation and via data reports on answers in Making Camp Lakota or Dakota.