Brackets First — Grade 5 Order of Operations, Decoded

The station's master equations have been scrambled and reading them back means evaluating expressions like 4 × (8 + 5) and (6 + 3) × 7 − 6. Parentheses first, then the rest — a rule that sounds trivial until an expression has a subtraction hanging off the end. Fifth grade is the first year students are expected to handle grouping symbols deliberately rather than left to right, and this station gives no credit for the left-to-right answer, which is the whole point.

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What this station asks for

🧮 Decode the ExpressionThe course code is a scrambled expression. Work out the value (do the brackets first!), then slide your rocket to that exact number to set the heading. You work out the answer, then slide the rocket along a number line to set the course. Five tasks, then the access log goes into the Case File.

Five questions it might ask

Drawn from the same pool the activity uses, so these are the real thing rather than an illustration. The numbers change on every attempt — there is no fixed set to memorize.

Question	Answer
(7 + 3) × 3 = ?	30
(2 + 8) × 4 − 2 = ?	38
(8 + 9) × 2 = ?	34
(9 + 2) × 3 = ?	33
2 × (5 + 8) = ?	26

👀 What to watch for

Answering 4 × (8 + 5) as 37 means the multiplication was done first — the single most common fifth grade error with this standard. It usually isn't carelessness; it's a student applying "work left to right" faithfully. Naming the rule out loud fixes it faster than more questions do.

The Common Core standard behind it

Official wording, quoted in full — not our summary of it:

5.OA.A.1	Use parentheses, brackets, or braces in numerical expressions, and evaluate expressions with these symbols.

More about 5.OA.A.1 and everything on this site that practices it →

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Other Grade 5 skills in this case

Multi-digit multiplication5.NBT.B.5 Long division5.NBT.B.6

All grades

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