Showing posts with label estimation. Show all posts
Showing posts with label estimation. Show all posts

Estimation again!

So I'm back a day late, but.. better late than never, right?!

We began our lesson yesterday by reviewing what we had learned yesterday about estimation. We talked about reasonable and educated guesses again and THEN we got into the meat of the lesson...making REAL life estimations.
I started by pulling a handful of linking cubes out of our tub. I like to use something that they're familiar with handling that first time so that the estimate is more concrete to them. I pulled out 14 cubes with my hand and then we made some observations about my hand. We talked about the comparison of our hands. If we know that my {big} hand can pull out 14 cubes, then we can make what observations about our own hands?

My kids did SO well with their estimations. It is so important to take the time to explicitly teach reasonable and *educated* guesses...to take the time and make observations before you just allow your kids to give it a shot in the dark.  {I've done it before...the results were terrible!} My kids estimations were something like this:
Most of my kids pulled out somewhere from 5-10 cubes. Look how good their estimations were! So proud of them! Tomorrow we're going to be doing estimations with small and large marshmallows. I'll be back for more later!

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Estimation


Happy Tuesday, friends!

We've been STAAR testing all day...luckily, I haven't had to administer the test..BUT we share a wall with a testing class so that is almost as awful as giving the test, right?! I mean, Kindergarteners were not meant to be silent! My blog name is "Rowdy" for a reason!

This week in math we are introducing estimation. Is this concept abstract, or what?! To begin, I spend an entire day on making REASONABLE guesses. What is reasonable to a 5 or 6 year old? 

Well, running around Firehouse Subs while smacking your little brother with the plastic firefighter hat is what my daughter apparently believes is reasonable. Oy 've!
{she really is sweet most of the time..but c'mon! they all lose their marbles periodically}

You get the point. 

They are so not reasonable! So, we have to explicitly teach the difference between reasonable and unreasonable...well, as well as you can teach a 6 year old.

I began by giving some oral examples. 
"I think I might need 400 glue bottles to finish this art project."
{hysterical laughter ensues}
"No, Mrs. Alderson, it would only take 1 glue bottle!"

and the list goes on. It really is hilarious to a kindergartener to talk about "unreasonable" estimations. Although we were forced to be silent, we had fun coming up with some silly unreasonable and reasonable estimations. I put my students in partners and we came up with some scenarios to share with the class. We worked in groups together to sort these cards:
I'll be back tomorrow with the second part of our estimation introduction!

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