Summary
Table of Contents

Purpose: Engages students and introduces elements needed for building a playground. In “Playground Palooza”, students will take the role of a playground designer responding to a request for a new playground at the school. Students will learn about numerical patterns, reading and writing decimals, rounding decimals, adding, subtracting, multiplying, and dividing decimals, converting measurements, volume, measuring volume, relating volume, coordinate planes, and attributes of 2D figures. Students will determine the total area of the new playground, determine the total area for each structure you want included on your playground, determine the volume of sand needed for the sandbox, use at least three playground structures, create a table of equipment and materials including company name, cost, quantity, and totals, create a coordinate system to display the center point for each structures or area on the playground, and submit a blueprint of their playground design. ***NOTE This PBL was created before NC adopted the NC standards for Math. Therefore this PBL also addresses: rounding decimals.

Learning Goals

Students will engage in this project that incorpotrates multiple Grade 5 standards.

title "Playground Palooza - A Project Using Volume, Lines, Rounding Decimals, Measurement" 2024 by LINDY KIRKMAN
under license"Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial Share Alike"

Version History

Cite this work

Playground Palooza - A Project Using Volume, Lines, Rounding Decimals, Measurement

Created Jan. 24, 2024 by LINDY KIRKMAN

Case Overview

In “Playground Palooza”, students will take the role of a playground designer responding to a request for a new playground at the school. Students will learn about numerical patterns, reading and writing decimals, rounding decimals, adding, subtracting, multiplying, and dividing decimals, converting measurements, volume, measuring volume, relating volume, coordinate planes, and attributes of 2D figures. Students will determine the total area of the new playground, determine the total area for each structure you want included on your playground, determine the volume of sand needed for the sandbox, use at least three playground structures, create a table of equipment and materials including company name, cost, quantity, and totals, create a coordinate system to display the center point for each structures or area on the playground, and submit a blueprint of their playground design.

PBL Lesson and Resource Links

Playground Palooza PBL Lesson
Playground Palooza Entry Document
Playground Palooza - Progression from Perimeter , to Area, to Volume
Playground Palooza - Brainstorm Picture
Playground Palooza - Picture of cube showing volume

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Subject:: Mathematics
Level:: Upper Primary
Material Type:: Activity/Lab

Standards

NC.Math.5.G.1

North Carolina Math Standards

Grade 5

Learning Domain: Geometry

Standard: Graph points in the first quadrant of a coordinate plane, and identify and interpret the x and y coordinates to solve problems.

Degree of Alignment: Not Rated (0 users)

NC.Math.5.G.3

North Carolina Math Standards

Grade 5

Learning Domain: Geometry

Standard: Classify quadrilaterals into categories based on their properties: Explain that attributes belonging to a category of quadrilaterals also belong to all subcategories of that category; Classify quadrilaterals in a hierarchy based on properties.

Degree of Alignment: Not Rated (0 users)

NC.Math.5.MD.1

North Carolina Math Standards

Grade 5

Learning Domain: Measurement and Data

Standard: Given a conversion chart, use multiplicative reasoning to solve one-step conversion problems within a given measurement system.

Degree of Alignment: Not Rated (0 users)

NC.Math.5.MD.4

North Carolina Math Standards

Grade 5

Learning Domain: Measurement and Data

Standard: Recognize volume as an attribute of solid figures and measure volume by counting unit cubes, using cubic centimeters, cubic inches, cubic feet, and improvised units.

Degree of Alignment: Not Rated (0 users)

NC.Math.5.MD.5

North Carolina Math Standards

Grade 5

Learning Domain: Measurement and Data

Standard: Relate volume to the operations of multiplication and addition: Find the volume of a rectangular prism with whole-number side lengths by packing it with unit cubes, and show that the volume is the same as would be found by multiplying the edge lengths; Build understanding of the volume formula for rectangular prisms with whole-number edge lengths in the context of solving problems; Find volume of solid figures with one-digit dimensions composed of two non-overlapping rectangular prisms.

Degree of Alignment: Not Rated (0 users)

NC.Math.5.NBT.3

North Carolina Math Standards

Grade 5

Learning Domain: Number and Operations in Base Ten

Standard: Read, write, and compare decimals to thousandths: Write decimals using base-ten numerals, number names, and expanded form; Compare two decimals to thousandths based on the value of the digits in each place, using >, =, and < symbols to record the results of comparisons.

Degree of Alignment: Not Rated (0 users)

NC.Math.5.NBT.7

North Carolina Math Standards

Grade 5

Learning Domain: Number and Operations in Base Ten

Standard: Compute and solve real-world problems with multi-digit whole numbers and decimal numbers: Add and subtract decimals to thousandths using models, drawings or strategies based on place value; Multiply decimals with a product to thousandths using models, drawings, or strategies based on place value; Divide a whole number by a decimal and divide a decimal by a whole number, using repeated subtraction or area models. Decimals should be limited to hundredths; Use estimation strategies to assess reasonableness of answers.

Degree of Alignment: Not Rated (0 users)

NC.Math.5.OA.3

North Carolina Math Standards

Grade 5

Learning Domain: Operations and Algebraic Thinking

Standard: Generate two numerical patterns using two given rules: Identify apparent relationships between corresponding terms; Form ordered pairs consisting of corresponding terms from the two patterns; Graph the ordered pairs on a coordinate plane.

Degree of Alignment: Not Rated (0 users)