Join me for a FREE, Guided Math workshop to discover how to easily incorporate Guided Math into your current schedule!
Looking for the Inner Circle Math Membership? 🎲 Click here to login.
When teaching new math skills to students, it’s important to help them understand when and where they might use them in the real world. When it comes to teaching estimating sums, there are a ton of real world examples we can give them to help make connections. From estimating the cost when ordering a meal out, to estimating how many party supplies you might need based on your guest list, and more, the possibilities are endless. This is a foundational mathematical skill and a key life skill for students to learn. In this blog post, I’m sharing 7 fun and hands-on activities for teaching estimating sums that follow the guided math format.
Teaching estimating sums in 3rd grade is a key element of learning multi-digit addition and subtraction. Estimation is a foundational mathematical and life skill for students to learn. It helps students develop number sense and strong mental math skills. By learning how to estimate sums, students can quickly make sense of numbers and add them together without needing to rely on exact calculations every time. This skill is especially useful in real world situations where you may not need the precise answer, but instead, need a quick, reasonable guess. This saves time and effort and helps solve problems quickly.
Some of these situations may be estimating sums for:
Along with these real world applications, estimating sums builds problem-solving and reasoning skills. Instead of focusing on exact numbers and sums, students are encouraged to think flexibly about numbers. They develop strategies for rounding and grouping numbers and making decisions based on estimations and approximate sums. This is a practical skill that they’ll use for a lifetime.
Estimating sums isn’t just about learning another math skill, it’s about learning how to navigate the world more efficiently.
Keep reading to see 7 fun and hands-on activities that you can add to your guided math lessons to help your students grasp this concept and better equip them to make informed decisions, both inside and outside of the classroom.
When introducing a new concept like estimating sums, I like to use a hands-on activity during whole group instruction that allows students to practice with several different problems as we work through them together. Flip, Round, and Estimate is perfect for that!
Students will flip 2 cards, write the numbers, round the numbers to the nearest ten, and solve for the estimated sum. This also sneaks in place value and rounding practice, which are key foundational skills to estimation. If you’re looking for more idea for teaching rounding numbers in 3rd grade, check out this blog post.
The next whole group estimating sums activity includes a digital element as students will follow along with a PowerPoint as they solve different addition estimation problems on a work mat. This is a great way for all students to practice in a whole group setting as the teacher observes each student, supporting them as needed. This PowerPoint encourages students to think about which place value they should round to, hundreds or tens.
After students have practiced both estimating sums and differences, it’s time to put these skills into practice by solving word problems. Scoot is one of my favorite whole group games as it gets kids up and moving while they learn. To start, place the Scoot task cards around the room or on student desks. Students will solve the first word problem task card on their recording sheet. When the teacher says, “Scoot!,” everyone rotates to the next card until they’re all solved. This also exposes students to new real life applications of estimating sums.
While whole group activities are a key part of your guided math lessons, the real magic happens as students put their skills into action during independent practice and small groups. I like using estimation math centers and games to help students work with the concept in a hands-on way.
This What’s the Estimate? interactive notebook activity is perfect for independent practice as they solve various estimation math problems. Plus, they can always look back at this activity for future reference as needed.
After working through both estimating sums and differences during our lessons, these hands-on puzzles make a great independent practice activity that students can do at their desk or around the room.
You could also have students work on these activities in small groups or with a partner, especially if they need more support in completing them.
While I’m typically not a fan of worksheets, these estimating sums worksheets are highly engaging. The color by code activity allows them to solve a variety of problems while also making it fun as they color to reveal the picture.
Tic-Tac Addition Estimation is a super fun small group math game that kids love! They will play with a partner, estimating and solving on each of the 4 game board sections to see who the winner is.
All of these estimating sums activities can be found in my 3rd Grade 3-Digit Addition and Subtraction with Regrouping Unit. In this unit, you’ll get daily guided math lesson plans, complete with whole group, small group, and independent practice activities for each day of the 20 day guided math unit.
You’ll have everything you need, along with easy-to-follow, detailed lesson plans so you can teach these fundamental math skills with confidence in 3rd grade.
Looking for even more math resources? Get this unit and SO MUCH MORE inside of the Inner Circle Math Membership!
Differentiation has never been easier with this growing library of resources for 1st-3rd grade. Simply login, select your grade level, and search by skill or season to find the resources you need to check lesson planning off your to-do list!
It’s never been easier to find the whole group, small group, and independent practice activities you need along with tons of math centers, games, and more!
Take a behind-the-scenes tour of the Inner Circle in this YouTube video to learn more!
