Content Area: Math

 

Index: 4.1C Grade 3 CPI 3

 

Standard: 4.1 - Number and Numerical Operations

 

Strand: C - Estimation

 

Cumulative Progress Indicator: 3 - The student will recognize when an estimate is appropriate, and understand the usefulness of an estimate as distinct from an exact answer.

 

Grade: 3

 

Sample Activities:

 

·        Given a pair of real-life situations, students determine which situation in the pair is the one for which estimation is a good approach and which is the one that probably requires an exact answer. One such pair, for example, might be: sharing a bag of peanuts among 3 friends and paying for 3 tickets at the movie theater.

 

·        Given a set of cartoons with home-made mathematical captions, first graders decide which of the cartoon characters arrived at exact answers and which got estimates. Two of the cartoons might show an adult and a child looking at a jar of jellybeans and the captions might read: Susie guessed that there were 18 jellybeans left in the jar and Susie's mom counted the 14 jellybeans left in the jar.

 

·        Students read or listen to newspaper headlines and discuss which involve exact numbers and which might be estimates.