Order of Operations Teaching Resources

Make teaching order of operations easier with printable order of operations worksheets, educational math games, PEMDAS rule posters and more! Created by the Teach Starter team of expert teachers, each engaging activity is ready to use in your classroom today.

Aligned with both TEKS and Common Core math standards, this collection of printable and digital activities will help you save time as you build lesson plans that simplify solving math problems.

New to teaching students the rules to follow when they're solving math equations or just looking for some tips to help students better understand the order of operations? Read on for a kid-friendly explanation of the steps, plus a look at what PEMDAS means and what it's called outside of the United States.

What Is the Order of Operations in Math? A Kid-Friendly Explanation

The order of operations is the set of rules that tells us the order of the steps we need to take when solving a math equation. It helps us solve problems in a systematic way to find the answers.

The rule — or order — of operations that we follow is:

1. Parentheses — When there are parentheses in an expression, we need to solve the operations inside the parentheses first. This is the first step in the order
2. Exponents —Exponents show how many times a number is multiplied by itself, like 2 squared or 3 cubed. If there are exponents in an expression, we evaluate them after dealing with the parantheses.
3. Multiplication and Division (from left to right) — Next in the order are multiplication and/or division. If there is more than one multiplication or division operation in an expression, we solve them in the order they appear, one after the other.
4. Addition and Subtraction (from left to right) — The final step in the order of operations is to solve any addition and/or subtraction operations. Like the previous step, if we encounter multiple addition or division operations, we solve them in order from left to right.

What Does PEMDAS Stand For? Each Letter of the Acronym, Explained

Did you notice the bolding on the letters above? That's because the order of operations is often shortened to the acronym PEMDAS to help kids easily remember the steps to follow.

PEMDAS stands for Parentheses, Exponents, Multiplication, Division, Addition, Subtraction.

This acronym is common in the American education system, but don't be surprised to find a variation if you are evaluating a math textbook from another country!

Other variations of PEMDAS include:

• BODMAS
• BOMDAS
• BIDMAS
• BEDMAS

In these alternative variations, used in countries such as the UK and Australia, the B stands for brackets, which is another word for parentheses. The "I" in BIDMAS stands for indices, while the "O" in BODMAS stands for order.

What Does Please Excuse My Dear Aunt Sally Mean?

Poor Aunt Sally! She didn't do anything wrong!

This sentence is a fun mnemonic to help students remember the order of operations rule — each initial letter in the sentence spells PEMDAS, providing a silly (but memorable!) alternative.