Thursday, April 5, 2012

Estimating Anyone?

I always have an estimation station going on in my classroom.  I've learned how helpful it is to show kids what five or ten of the object looks like so they can make a better educated guess.  For Read Across America, I decided to move the station outside near the front office and make it a school-wide affair.  What fun!  (We are only a K-1 school!)


The baggie in front showed what "100" looked like.  I usually don't have such large quantities but I figured this was a special occasion! 

To make it easy (and to save time for our kiddos and teachers,) I actually had the teachers names on the recoding sheet so kids could easily circle them..  It looked like this.  (But precut, of, course!)


The winning guess was, I believe 405 or 605...I forget.  But I do remember who won:  a cutie from my class!  She got to take home a huge bag of goldfish covered in Dr. Seuss ribbon and stickers.


It was so much fun that we're thinking of having a school-wide weekly estimation station next year.  Since it's a small school, it should be easy to implement.  Do you have an estimation station?  Do you give out prizes to the winner? I've gone back and forth as to what I should do but have finally decided on letting the kids sign the Bravo Board.  They LOVE it!  I should take a pic and post it here.  I'd love to hear how you implement yours.

Here is a fun song you can sing with your class.  Enjoy!



6 comments:

  1. Kids love estimation! I really like your idea of including what 5 or 10 of the objects would look like to help with the estimation.
    Lori
    Conversations in Literacy

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    1. Thanks! I think I'll add some guesses that are simple like, "Is this greater than or less than 100?" This way, more kids can feel like winners.

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  2. I wish my school were small enough. We estimate in my room each week, but I'm sure the whole school idea would be fun.

    ❀ Tammy
    Forever in First

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    Replies
    1. We only have 166 kids in our building! We are "connected" down a path to the 1-5 school with 800 kiddos. But each school runs independently. The downside is that all my firsties move on to the other school next year. :(

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