Second Blog

Estimation

I do believe that teaching estimation skills to elementary students is important.  I think that we estimate more than we think, and it is a great skill for students to learn. 

Think about how many times a day you estimate how long it will take you to complete a task.  When you go the store you probably estimate how much things will cost when you are buying multiple items.  You might estimate how many servings a recipie will make.  You might estimate how many pizzas to order.  

Many people have easy access to calculators while out and about, though it is good for students to learn how to estimate and to practice estimating.  There are times when it is not necessary to have the exact anwser, who doesn't mind if there is left over candy bought for the trick or treaters?  Though often it is required to have the correct answer.  This is another reason why  it is good to know how to estimate.  How many times have you hit the wrong button on the calculator and you knew that the answer just didn't seem right?  Well that's beause you know how to estimate.


Some ideas on teaching elementary school students about estimating.

• Rounding to the nearest ten, teach students how to round up or down.

• When the number ends in 1 ,2, 3, 4, then round down.

• When the number ends in 5, 6, 7, 8, or 9, then round up.

• Teach skip counting to help learn to round numbers.  5, 10, 15, 20, 25.... and 10, 20, 30, 40, 50.

• This is a cute rhyme to help students remember when to round up or down.        1, 2, 3, 4, down on the floor, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, climb up the vine.

• Have a jar of gumballs and have students estimate the amount, the closest estimate wins a gumball.

• Let students estimate how many steps to the playground.

Here are some helpful websites for estimating.

http://www.basic-mathematics.com/estimating-a-sum.html
http://www.mathsisfun.com/numbers/estimation.html


Fun Games

http://www.aasd.k12.wi.us/staff/boldtkatherine/MathResources_Primary.htm#Rounding_&_Estimating
http://pbskids.org/cyberchase/math-games/glowlas-estimation-contraption/

Make Math Fun

This summer I am taking both Mathematics for Elementary Teachers courses, and it is my goal to become an elementary school teacher.  As we are going through our chapters, learning and reviewing content I am constantly trying to think of ways that I could teach the new content to students and make it interesting and fun. 

As an elementary student long, long ago I remember sitting in desks taking notes and doing pages of exercises for homework often without any help and occasionally not understanding the content well enough to complete the work.  My goal as a teacher will be to make sure students understand the content prior to going home to practice the exercises so that it would eliminate the frustration of learning new math concepts.

I have been able to observe many wonderful teachers as well as my own children’s teachers at work in their classrooms, and I am so pleased that teaching seems to have really changed during the past few decades.  There are more hands on activities, use of manipulatives, more physical movement around the rooms, cooperative learning, and relating the content to their own lives.  This is a great improvement for helping children learn and making it fun and interesting.

This week in our chapter we were reviewing early numeration systems.  I think one that would be interesting for students to learn about is the Roman Numeration System. 

Some ideas for teaching elementary school students Roman numerals

• Show students the Roman numeral symbols and the equivalent in the Hindu-Arabic system also known as the base-ten place-value numeration system that we use.

 

• Ask children where they have seen these symbols.

 

 

• Examples – book pages, chapters, Super Bowl games, clocks, and dates on older buildings.

• Make Roman numeral bingo game for students.

• Have students play a matching game with the Roman numerals to the Hindu-Arabic numerals.

• Have students pair up and write the Roman numerals on paper or their white boards and have their partner write the equivalent in the Hindu- Arabic numerals.

• Take the children outside and let the students use sidewalk chalk to quiz each other on the Roman numerals and their equivalents in Hindu-Arabic numerals.

Fun website for kids learning Roman numerals

http://learningideasgradesk-8.blogspot.com/2012/03/roman-numeral-activities-for-kids.html