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estimation Archives - MARILYN BURNS MATH

AssessmentDataGeneral InterestNumber and OperationsNumerical ReasoningReal-World Problems

Beans and Scoops

Lessons using beans and scoops have long been part of my teaching repertoire. I’ve used beans, scoops, and jars to engage students in all grade levels with a variety of mathematical ideas. In this post, I write about how I recently taught a lesson to give students experience with estimation, averages, multiplication, and more. Read about how I planned the lesson, how it unfolded, and suggestions for extensions and other lessons.
Marilyn Burns
November 1, 2016
General InterestNumber and OperationsNumerical ReasoningSubtraction

Why I Like Using Open Number Lines (Though I Don’t Like the Name)

This post is about subtraction, which is typically difficult for students to learn and for teachers to teach. Think about 503 – 398, for example. To estimate the answer, I can change the problem to 500 – 400 (rounding 503 to 500 and 398 to 400). That gives me an estimate of 100, which I know is close. But how can I know if the actual answer to 503 – 398 is greater or less than 100? I raised this question with third graders.
Marilyn Burns
February 25, 2015