Maths Library

Converting Units of Measurement: Year 5 maths

This topic covers converting between different units of metric and imperial measurement for length, mass, and volume. Students practise multiplying and dividing by powers of 10 and using conversion factors in multi-step problems.

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What this covers

Converting Units of Measurement is taught in Year 5 (age 10 to 11) as a main teaching focus. It sits in the Measurement strand.

Worked example

Convert 3.45 metres into centimetres.

  1. Recall that 1 metre = 100 centimetres.
  2. Multiply the length by 100: 3.45 × 100.
  3. 3.45 × 100 = 345 cm.

Answer: 345 cm

Difficulty scale

The sheet generator offers five difficulty settings for this topic.

  1. Single-step whole number conversions between adjacent metric units (e.g. cm to mm, m to cm).
  2. Conversions between non-adjacent or larger units involving decimals (e.g. km to m, kg to g).
  3. Conversions involving decimals requiring division (e.g. ml to l, g to kg).
  4. Compound unit conversions or area/volume unit conversions (e.g. cm^2 to mm^2, m/s to km/h).
  5. Multi-step contextual word problems requiring conversions before computing totals or comparing values.

Common mistakes

  • Dividing when converting from large to small units instead of multiplying (e.g. 2 m = 0.02 cm).
  • Thinking 1 m^2 = 100 cm^2 by using linear conversion factors for area.

Curriculum links

Indicative matches to Australian Curriculum v9. Check wording and codes against the official document.

  • AC9M5M02 Convert between common metric units of length, mass, and capacity.

Sample sheet and answers

Six questions at the level's usual difficulty. Open the editor to change, add or regenerate any of them.

Converting Units of Measurement

Year 5 maths

Qs
6
Marks
6
NameDateScore / 6
1.
Convert 8.5 m to cm.
[1]
2.
Convert 4.9 kg to g.
[1]
3.
Convert 2.3 km to m.
[1]
4.
Convert 5.4 kg to g.
[1]
5.
Convert 7.2 kg to g.
[1]
6.
Convert 7.7 kg to g.
[1]

Answer key

  1. 850 cm8.5 × 100 = 850
  2. 4900 g4.9 × 1000 = 4900
  3. 2300 m2.3 × 1000 = 2300
  4. 5400 g5.4 × 1000 = 5400
  5. 7200 g7.2 × 1000 = 7200
  6. 7700 g7.7 × 1000 = 7700