Resources/Order of operations practice
Grades 5-6•Printable worksheet + answer key•CC0 license

Order of operations practice

A printable lesson for evaluating expressions.

Students follow the correct order to simplify expressions with parentheses.

Print-ready worksheet with answer key and quick teaching tips.

Grades 5-60 problems10 minAnswer key included
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Ready-to-teach

Clear steps, examples, and practice in one printable page.

Misconception-proof

Highlights common mistakes and how to fix them quickly.

Open license

CC0: free to copy, adapt, and share without attribution.

Quick overview

This free order of operations worksheet for grades 5-6 focuses on parentheses, multiplication, and division first.

Lesson plan snapshot

12-18 min
  • Warm-up (3 min): review multiplication and division facts.
  • Model (5 min): solve the worked example together.
  • Guided practice (4 min): complete problems 1-4 as a group.
  • Independent practice (6 min): finish the remaining problems.

Materials: pencil, scratch paper

Learning targets

  • Apply the correct order of operations.
  • Evaluate expressions with parentheses.
  • Check work using estimation.

Step-by-step approach

  1. 1Simplify inside parentheses first.
  2. 2Multiply and divide from left to right.
  3. 3Add and subtract from left to right.
  4. 4Check if the answer is reasonable.

Common mistakes

Mistake

Adding before multiplying.

Try instead

Multiplication and division come before addition.

Mistake

Ignoring parentheses.

Try instead

Parentheses always come first.

Mistake

Working right to left for division.

Try instead

Multiply and divide from left to right.

Worked example

Guided
4 + 3 × 5 = ?
  1. Multiply first: 3 × 5 = 15.
  2. Add: 4 + 15 = 19.
Answer: 19

Related resources

Expressions

Combine like terms and use distributive property.

View resource

Equations

Solve two-step equations and check solutions.

View resource

Decimals

Support multi-step computation practice.

View resource

Practice problems

10 problems • 15 min

Printable worksheet
  1. 1
    Evaluate: 17−9÷3+417 - 9 \div 3 + 4
  2. 2
    Evaluate: 9+6×99 + 6 \times 9
  3. 3
    Evaluate: 4×4+24 \times 4 + 2
  4. 4
    Evaluate: 16−6÷2+416 - 6 \div 2 + 4
  5. 5
    Evaluate: (8+9)×6(8 + 9) \times 6
  6. 6
    Evaluate: 3×6+33 \times 6 + 3
  7. 7
    Evaluate: 7+8×37 + 8 \times 3
  8. 8
    Evaluate: 3×6+23 \times 6 + 2
  9. 9
    Evaluate: (5+8)×2(5 + 8) \times 2
  10. 10
    Evaluate: 3×7+53 \times 7 + 5

Answer key

10 answers
  1. 11) 18
  2. 22) 63
  3. 33) 18
  4. 44) 17
  5. 55) 102
  6. 66) 21
  7. 77) 31
  8. 88) 20
  9. 99) 26
  10. 1010) 26

Teacher tips

  • TUse PEMDAS or GEMS as a memory tool.
  • THave students underline parentheses first.
  • TDiscuss why order matters using examples.

Parent tips

  • PAsk your child to explain the order in words.
  • PUse short expressions for quick practice.
  • PCheck answers together with a calculator.

Open license

You are free to copy, adapt, and share these materials. No attribution required. Released under Creative Commons CC0 1.0 (public domain).