Under the Dome
Sweet Tart Hearts Revisited
Use fractions to estimate candy counts. After watching a video of emptying a bag of candies into a glass, individuals estimate the number of candies of each color. The teacher provides the class with additional information to help answer...
Bowland
You Reckon?
Sometimes simple is just better. A set of activities teaches young mathematicians about using plausible estimation to solve problems. They break problems down to simpler problems, use rounding and estimation strategies, and consider...
101 Questions
Pool Capacity
Here's hoping that we can all fit into the pool. Given pictures and dimensions of a pool in tile lengths, scholars decide how many people can fit into the pool. This requires consideration of area, as well as the application of some...
Illustrative Mathematics
How Many Leaves on a Tree?
This is great go-to activity for those spring or fall days when the weather beckons your geometry class outside. Learners start with a small tree, devising strategies to accurately estimate the leaf count. They must then tackle the...
Didax
Pi Day #1a – Discovering Pi
Unravel the mystery behind the infamous number pi. Scholars complete a series of activities that explores where pi comes from, its digits and estimation strategies. Pupils should be ready to measure, calculate, and look for patterns to...
Illustrative Mathematics
Reasoning about Multiplication and Division and Place Value, Part 1
Help your class make sense of quantities and their relationships. Given is the product of two numbers. It is up to your number crunchers to think about the quantitative relationship when the product is one-tenth or ten times the product...
Illustrative Mathematics
How Thick Is a Soda Can I?
The humble soda can gets the geometric treatment in an activity that links math and science calculations. After a few basic assumptions are made and discussed, surface area calculations combine with density information to develop an...
Under the Dome
Card House
Mathematics is stronger than a card house. Pupils watch a video of the beginning of the building of a triangular card house. Scholars come up with questions they wonder about from the video and ask for more information to arrive at an...
Illustrative Mathematics
Reasoning about Multiplication and Division and Place Value, Part 2
The learner puts reasoning and estimation to work. The directions are to place a decimal in the answer to make the equation true. Pupils are to look at the two problems, one multiplication and one division, and estimate an answer. No...
Illustrative Mathematics
How Many Cells Are in the Human Body?
Investigating the large numbers of science is the task in a simple but deep activity. Given a one-sentence problem set-up and some basic assumptions, the class sets off on an open-ended investigation that really gives some...
Gfletchy
Rope Jumper
Jump at the chance to use the idea of rates. Young mathematicians watch part of a clip of a Japanese TV show where a contestant jumps rope as fast as possible. They use the data for the number of jumps and the number of seconds shown in...
Curated OER
Pi Day: The Other Math Holiday!
Happy Pi Day! This collection of games, experiments, and activities leads participants through an exploration of the many aspects and attributes of that mysterious quantity, pi. Activities range from using statistical...
Illustrative Mathematics
Placing a Square Root on the Number Line
There are many ways to approach finding the rational approximation of an unknown square root. Here is a problem that will help math learners make a connection between square roots and their order on a number line. As usual, determine two...
Illustrative Mathematics
Equivalent fractions approach to non-repeating decimals
Trying to get your class to think of decimals as fractions and vice versa can lead to interesting discussions. After all, we can usually understand quickly that 1/4 is .25 but why is 1/7 not so easy to convert? This activity looks...
National Council of Teachers of Mathematics
Nctm: Figure This: Beating Heart
Do you know how long it takes your heart to beat 100 times? Test your estimation and number sense skills with this problem-solving challenge. A one-page activity taken from the NCTM Math Challenges for Families Collection. Hints and...
Shodor Education Foundation
Shodor Interactivate: Comparison Estimator
Use this applet to practice your estimating skills comparing length, area, counting or a random sampling of those topics. You can also adjust the difficulty and the precision needed. The applet also lets you know how close you are to the...
K-5 Math Teaching Resources
K 5 Math Teaching Resources: Estimate the Quotient [Pdf]
Use strategies to estimate the quotient.