Evaluate Expressions with Parentheses

Students evaluate numerical expressions that contain only parentheses, applying the correct order of operations. They practice simplifying the grouped portion first and then performing remaining operations.

Try three of them

Real questions from this skill, graded here. No account, and nothing is saved.

Grade 5 · Algebraic Thinking: Expressions and Grouping Symbols · question 1 of 3

0 of 20

20 rungs. A star at the top.

Fatima fills 5 baskets in the orchard. Each basket gets 4 apples and 9 pears. How many pieces of fruit does Fatima put in the baskets?

How it is taught

0:00 of 4:12

Parentheses are a signal to compute the grouped part first.

After that group is one number, you finish the rest.

Read it: Grouping symbols

5 + 6 × 2: × comes before +, so 6 × 2 = 12, then 5 + 12 = 17. To add first, write parentheses: (5 + 6) × 2 is 11 × 2 = 22.

Work inside parentheses ( ) first, then brackets [ ], then braces { }, from the inside out.
Then × and ÷, from left to right.
Then + and −, from left to right.

Without parentheses, × comes first: 5 + 6 × 2 is 5 + 12.

Parentheses say "do this first": (5 + 6) × 2 adds before it multiplies.

One operation a line keeps every step easy to check.

The innermost grouping first, then × and ÷, then + and −.

Going left to right: 5 + 6 = 11, then 11 × 2 = 22.

× comes before +: 6 × 2 = 12, and 5 + 12 = 17.

8 × (6 + 7) = ___ — 104. 6 + 7 = 13, then 8 × 13 = 104.

(8 + 3) × 2

When we see parentheses in a math expression, they're like a special signal. They tell us where to start.

Here's our expression: open parenthesis, eight plus three, close parenthesis, times two.

The rule is simple — always work inside the parentheses first.

So we zoom in on the part inside the parentheses: eight plus three.

Eight plus three equals eleven.

Now we can rewrite our expression. It becomes eleven times two.

Eleven times two is twenty-two.

So our answer is twenty-two. Always start inside the parentheses!

Grade 5 · Parentheses tell us where to start

What you see

While they climb, your page writes one true line to ask about tonight, and a short note each Sunday.

MayaGrade 3 · Mathematics

Did you know?

A chessboard has 64 squares — share them out between the 8 rows and each row holds exactly 8.

Today’s goal: 1 star — one skill mastered, every rung of its ladder climbed
Climbing now: Divide within 100

An example student.

MayaGrade 3 · Mathematics

Maya earned 2 stars this week — Interpret multiplication as equal groups, which took 6 answers over 3 days before its star landed 3 days ago and Multiply by 6, 7, 8 and 9. Next up: Divide within 100.

An example week.

More of the library

Every skill has a page

Standard

CCSS.5.OA.A.1

Use parentheses, brackets, or braces in numerical expressions, and evaluate expressions with these symbols

Grade 5

Quoted from the Common Core State Standards.

Where this sits

Comes after

Leads to

What a star here means

A star here is the top of a twenty-rung ladder, in four blocks of equal length — three of facts and one of the skill used in a real question — where a right answer climbs one rung and a wrong one drops back to the start of the block, never below it. The star is kept for good. How we grade

All of Grade 5

This is one rung of 81 in Grade 5 mathematics, in the order they build on each other.

Practise this skill free

14 days of every skill, practice packets, Fluency sheets and up to four students. No card.

Start free