Everything you need to know about Fifth Grade Math with Confidence. Includes an overview of what your child will learn, a downloadable sample, answers to frequently asked questions, and buying information.
In this article, you’ll find all the information specific to Fifth Grade Math with Confidence:
- How the program and lessons are organized
- What your child will learn
- What you’ll need
- Placement advice
- Where to buy the books
For information about the series as a whole (or information on other grade levels), please see this article: Overview of Math with Confidence Homeschool Math Curriculum.
Wishing you all the best in your teaching! Happy Fifth Grade Math!
What’s the program’s format?
Fifth Grade Math with Confidence is a complete fifth-grade math program with three volumes: an Instructor Guide and two Student Workbooks.
- The Instructor Guide is the core of the program, with scripted lessons and hands-on activities and games that teach the key skills and concepts.
- The two Student Workbooks (Part A and Part B ) provide lesson activities, practice, and review. Workbook Part A covers Units 1-7, and Workbook Part B covers Units 8-16.
Fifth Grade Math with Confidence has 16 units in all. Units vary in length from 6 to 13 lessons, and there are a total of 144 lessons. 128 are regular lessons, and 16 are optional enrichment lessons.
You’re welcome to adjust the number of lessons you teach per week to best fit your family’s schedule. Some families prefer to teach math 5 days per week, while others prefer to teach math 4 days per week and leave one day open for co-ops, errands, or field trips. If you teach 4 lessons per week and teach all the enrichment lessons, the program will take you 36 weeks. If you teach 4 lessons per week and skip the enrichment lessons, the program will take you 32 weeks.
If you used Fourth Grade Math with Confidence, you’ll find the format for fifth grade very familiar. It has the same overall flow to the lessons, with three workbook pages per lesson and a unit wrap-up at the end of each unit.
What does a typical lesson look like?
Most pilot families spent an average of 30-45 minutes on each lesson, with 10-15 minutes of parent-led instruction and 20-30 minutes of independent work. However, this will vary depending on your teaching style and your child’s learning style—and how many other kids you have interrupting you!
Each lesson includes 3 parts:
- Memory Work and Warm-up. Each lesson begins with a few memory work review questions and a quick warm-up activity. The warm-up activity eases your child into math time and helps start the lesson on a confident and positive note.
- Lesson Activities with Parent. Next, you’ll use the scripted lesson plan and Lesson Activities page in the workbook to teach your child new concepts and skills.
- Independent Practice. Last, your child will complete the Practice and Review workbook pages. On the Practice page, he’ll practice the new concept or skill you taught him. On the Review page, he’ll review previously-learned skills so that he retains them well.
For example, in lesson 4.2, you’ll use the scripted lesson in the Instructor Guide and this Lesson Activities page to teach your child the formula for finding the volume of a rectangular prism. Then, you and your child will play “Build the Box” to practice applying the formula.
Then, your child will independently practice finding volume on the Practice page. On the Review page, he’ll review skills like converting mixed numbers to improper fractions, long division, finding a missing side length, and applying the order of operations to word problems.
Can I download a sample?
In these samples, you’ll find the full introduction, scope and sequence, and materials list, plus a variety of lessons from across the year so that you get a good sense of the program as a whole. Make sure to download both files so that you can see how the Instructor Guide complements the Student Workbook.
- Download: Instructor Guide sample
- Download: Student Workbooks sample (includes both Part A and Part B)
I’ve also put together a 20-minute flip-through video if you’d like to get a greater sense of the books as a whole.
What will my child learn?
Fifth Grade Math with Confidence is a full-year, comprehensive curriculum that covers everything your child needs to learn in fifth grade. She’ll learn how to:
- Understand place value to billions
- Use parentheses and the order of operations to evaluate expressions
- Multiply and divide multi-digit numbers (including multiplication up to three digits times three digits, and long division up to four digits divided by two digits)
- Add and subtract fractions and mixed numbers with different denominators
- Find fractions of sets and express parts of sets as fractions
- Multiply fractions and mixed numbers
- Solve simple fraction division problems and understand the concept of fraction division
- Add, subtract, multiply, and divide decimals to the thousandths-place
- Solve word problems with fractions and decimals
- Use fractions and decimals to express and convert measurements
- Find the volume of rectangular prisms
- Graph points on the coordinate grid with positive coordinates
- Reason about the angles and sides of triangles and quadrilaterals
- Find the mean and median for a small data set
How does Fifth Grade Math with Confidence help children develop math study skills and greater independence in math?
Fifth graders are often eager for more independence in math–and their parents are often eager to reduce their teaching responsibilities! However, very few 10- or 11-year-olds are ready to study and learn math on their own. Even the most mature child will still need accountability, support, and the opportunity to ask questions.
The lessons in Fifth Grade Math with Confidence (and Sixth Grade, coming in June 2026) are designed to both make the most of your teaching time and help your child develop the ability to read and study math more independently. If you used earlier levels of Math with Confidence, you’ll find a few changes in Fifth Grade Math with Confidence to reflect your child’s growing maturity.
- The Lesson Activities pages have more examples and text to read together. You and your child will read and study the examples together so that your child gradually develops the skill of learning math from a textbook. The printed text and examples also streamline the instructional time needed to teach the lessons.
- Some of the lessons include one-player games (rather than two-player games) that your child can complete on her own.
- Each unit includes a Unit Reference page that summarizes the core skills your child learned in the unit. These pages provide a summary of the key teaching in each unit so that your child can refer to them rather than immediately asking you for help. (You’ll find thesepages at the back of each workbook.)
- There is no longer a different picture book listed at the end of each unit. Instead, the enrichment lessons recommend buying one longer book and reading a few pages from the book at the end of each unit.
Don’t expect that your child will be able to work completely independently. The next couple of years are a gradual process of transferring responsibility to your child for her math learning, not an immediate or dramatic shift. Some days, your child may be able to zoom through her Practice and Review pages on her own, while other days she may still need you right by her side.
As in the previous levels, the Instructor Guide is an essential part of the program. Even if you don’t follow the scripted lesson word-by-word, make sure you use the Instructor Guide alongside the Student Workbook. The text on the Lesson Activities page summarizes the core concept or skill in each lesson, but there are often warm-ups, games, and explanations in the Instructor Guide that aren’t printed in the workbook.
What materials will I need?
I’ve kept the materials list as simple and budget-friendly as possible, just like in the earlier levels of Math with Confidence: counters, fraction bars, fraction circles, base-ten blocks, play money, a ruler, a protractor, 2 packs of playing cards, 2 dice, blank paper, pencils, and a highlighter. (Note that you’ll use base-ten blocks and play money only occasionally in this level. If you don’t already own them, you may want to copy and cut out the paper blocks in the back of the book rather than buying them.)
Manipulative suggestions are included throughout the program, but they’re often optional at this level. Some fifth graders are able to learn from the diagrams on the lesson activities pages, while others still need lots of hands-on and concrete activities to understand math. If your child learns best with lots of hands-on learning, you’ll find many suggestions throughout the lessons on how to incorporate manipulatives.
Is my child ready to start Fifth Grade Math with Confidence?
Your child is ready to start Fifth Grade Math with Confidence if he can:
- Understand place value in numbers to 1,000,000.
- Name answers to the multiplication and division facts (up to 10×10 and 100÷10). He
should be able to recall the answers to most within 3 seconds or so. It’s okay if the tricky 7s, 8s, or 9s still take a little longer. - Solve multiplication problems with the traditional written process (up to four-digit
numbers times one-digit numbers or two-digit numbers times two-digit numbers). - Use long division to solve division problems (up to four-digit numbers divided by
one-digit numbers). - Find equivalent fractions and convert improper fractions to mixed numbers (and
vice versa). - Add and subtract fractions or mixed numbers with the same denominators.
- Read, write, and compare decimals to the hundredths place.
- Solve measurement problems and convert measurements within a system of measurement (for example, inches to feet, or kilograms to grams).
- Measure, compare, and reason about angles.
(Note that this is the bare minimum list of skills your child should know before starting Fifth Grade Math with Confidence. It is not a full list of everything covered in Fourth Grade Math with Confidence.)
If your child is not fluent with the multiplication and division facts but knows the rest of the skills listed above,
he is probably ready to begin Fifth Grade Math with Confidence. Make sure to add 5 minutes of daily multiplication fact or division fact practice to each lesson until your child becomes more fluent with the facts.
If you have more questions about placement, check out this article for more advice and answers to frequently asked questions:
How are enrichment activities and picture books incorporated?
At the end of unit, you’ll find an enrichment lesson with a real-life math application activity. These are completely optional, and you can include as many or as few as you want over the course of the year.
Each enrichment lesson also lists suggested pages to read from How Many Guinea Pigs Can Fit on
a Plane?: Answers to Your Most Clever Math Questions, by Laura Overdeck. This book makes
a fun companion to Fifth Grade Math with Confidence. It includes many real-life examples
of the topics your child will study this year, including multiplication and division with large
numbers, fractions, decimals, and measurements.
Will there be other grades? Is Math with Confidence a full series?
Yes! Math with Confidence will be a comprehensive kindergarten through sixth grade math curriculum once it’s complete. See this article for the release dates and more information on other grades.
Where can I buy Fifth Grade Math with Confidence?
Digital copies (PDFs) and print copies are available now from Well-Trained Mind Press.
The official publication day is June 24, 2025. Print copies will be available after that at Amazon and other homeschool booksellers.
Thank you so much for creating this!
Will there be a picture book list that goes along with this new level, as well?
This level uses one longer book throughout the year. It’s called “How Many Guinea Pigs Fit on a Plane?”
Happy Math!
Kate
What math program(s) do you recommend for 7th grade, and beyond? We’ll be using MWC through 6th grade, but I’d like to start considering options. Thank you!
Sorry, I haven’t had time yet to put together a list of recommended options for after sixth grade.
Happy Math!
Kate