Curriculum › Math ›Grade 3

Grade 3 Math · Level 3, Operations & Reasoning

Use Conventional Order of Operations

How the lesson starts: Use Conventional Order of Operations

1. Wizard Wren's potion

   Hello, young wizard! Wizard Wren brews a potion with the spell 3 + 4 × 5. Her owl Ollie says 35. Her cat Sage says 23. Only one answer makes the potion bubble. Let's find out!

2. Times goes first

   Let's picture 3 + 4 × 5. Here are 3 loose mushrooms. Then 4 groups of 5 mushrooms. 4 × 5 is 20. Add the 3 loose ones: 23 mushrooms! The groups get built first. Sage is right!

3. Times before minus

   Next spell: 30 − 4 × 6. Find the times first. 4 × 6 = 24. Now the spell is 30 − 24. That makes 6. Poof! Watch out: going left to right gives 26 × 6. That's way off!