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Looking for new ideas for teaching rounding?
Finding ways to make rounding hands-on and interactive will help students understand this concept!
Rounding teaches kids how to be efficient with numbers and helps them with number sense.
Rounding is the basis of mental math and gives us a strong grasp of numbers – all of which we need in our personal, academic, and professional lives.
Keep reading to learn about super fun activities for teaching rounding!
Don’t forget to scroll to the bottom to get a FREE multiplication color by number!
Manipulatives are a fantastic way to introduce the topic of rounding, as well as to give kids a concrete understanding of what rounding is.
What kinds of manipulatives could you use?
My FAVORITE is making a number line and using a counting bear or some sort of cube as a marker to show rounding.
Provide students with a number line or draw a number line on the board.
Show students how they can use a moveable counter to round the number on a number line.
Incorporate technology into your rounding unit to enhance student engagement with rounding!
My FAVORITE digital way to do rounding while working with students is by using digital mystery pixel art.
I have the perfect rounding digital mystery pixel art for you!
For this, students will need access to a computer or iPad.
As students correctly answer rounding questions, a mystery picture appears!
If a student incorrectly answers a problem, then the picture will not fill in completely.
Think of it like a digital math color-by-number!
This rounding digital mystery pixel art is an excellent way for students to self-check their work, since if students answer incorrectly their picture will not show up.
Digital mystery pixel art is available for Google Classroom (and platforms like Microsoft Teams, Canvas, etc.), but can also be used on Microsoft Excel as a spreadsheet.
These seriously feel like a game, I’m totally serious that your students are going to be asking for more.
More rounding practice?
Yep, it will happen!
Click HERE to check out Rounding Digital Pixel Art!
Yep – just like it sounds!
This is the perfect math center to integrate into your math block for a couple weeks, or even throughout the year to keep rounding fresh in your students’ minds.
Just like a traditional war game, students will split a deck in half.
Students will put down a card, then round to the nearest 5.
If there’s a tie (as many of the cards will be a tie!), then they keep going.
I’m a fan of any math center that involves no prep work besides throwing out a deck of cards 🙂
This one works best in a big space – like outside on the blacktop!
With chalk (or post-it notes if you’re inside), make a big number line (make tick marks for 10, 20, 30, 40, 50, 60, 70, 80, 90, 100… nothing perfect or exact, just do this quickly).
Students will each get a notecard with a number on it (anything…. like 92, 25, 34, 2, etc.).
Ask students to stand approximately where their number would be.
Tell the students… “round to the nearest 5!”
Students will find where they should stand.
The teacher will do a quick check to see if everyone is in the right spot.
Then, say “Round to the nearest 10!” and repeat.
Finish off with “Round to the nearest 100!” and repeat.
Finally, have students switch cards with a partner and repeat!
This is a great one to do if it’s nice outside or if you notice that your kids are in DEEP NEED of some movement!
This is a really fun activity that your students will ADORE.
Students will create a rounding board game!
They can do this either individually, with partners, or in groups.
Give students a class block to create a rounding board game (or make it a center for the week).
You’ll be surprised by how many kids want to take this home to continue working on it – which I say “heck yes!” to!
Then, they can play these in class.
You’ll love seeing how creative kids are and what they come up with!
Don’t give them too many directions or guidelines for this project, and let them soar with their creativity and ideas!
I have lots of rounding resources available at Glitter in Third on TPT!
Click the links below to check them out:
I also have a great blog post on 5 ways to teach place value – click HERE to read!
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Hey there, I’m Kelly! I I love helping teachers save time with technology and resources so they have more hours in the day to spend with family and friends. Take a look around to find new ideas that you can implement in your classroom today!
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