Dear Roots Families,
The Aspens, Pines and Tamaracks have been building their numeracy skills with a weekly estimation jar. The estimation jar has quickly become a favorite weekly routine among students!
Through this activity they practice many math concepts including counting with 1-1 correspondence, number recognition, number writing, and estimating.
According to Dr. Robert S. Siegler, professor of Cognitive Psychology at Carnegie Mellon University, "Learning how to estimate is important, not only because estimating is something we need to do all the time, but also because proficiency at estimation is substantially correlated with many aspects of numerical understanding" (source).
Each week a different student takes home an empty jar and fills it with between 1 and 20 objects. When they bring it back to Roots, we give their classmates the opportunity to look at the jar and estimate how many objects are in the jar.
Students write down their guess at the beginning of class and at the end of class we count out how many objects were in the jar and see how close each student's guess was to the actual number.
Each week a different student takes home an empty jar and fills it with between 1 and 20 objects. When they bring it back to Roots, we give their classmates the opportunity to look at the jar and estimate how many objects are in the jar.
Students write down their guess at the beginning of class and at the end of class we count out how many objects were in the jar and see how close each student's guess was to the actual number.
We wanted to find a way to continue using the estimation jar from a distance. This week's estimation jar was prepared by Vern (Thank You, Vern!). I've taken four pictures of the estimation jar at different angles so that your child can see everything in it.
We invite you to post your child's estimation with their name in the comments section of this post before noon this Friday. On Friday afternoon we will post a video counting out the objects in the estimation jar, so your child can see how close their guess was to the actual number.
This is a simple and fun activity to duplicate at home! Use any clear container and allow different family members to take turns filling it so that others can make their estimates. Just like we do in class, you can practice counting out the objects from the jar on your own homemade number line.
Some students will enjoy this in a more formal fashion as we do in class, and others will just enjoy filling and counting over and over! Meet your child where they are at to keep it fun for everyone.
Happy Estimating!
Hoyt's guess is 10. (and he hopes he is right) :)
ReplyDeleteWhat a fun way to do an estimation jar!
Thanks for your guess, Hoyt. I'll be posting a video this afternoon to count out what's in the estimation jar. Count along with me to see if you are right!
DeleteLila guesses 6, but Sebastian who is a Ponderosa Pine!! estimates 10
ReplyDeleteLove that Lila is participating too!
DeleteThanks for your estimations, Sebastian and Lila. I'll be posting a video this afternoon to count out what's in the estimation jar. You can count along with me to see who is closest!
DeleteTrace thinks there are 10 cars in the jar!
ReplyDeleteThanks for your guess, Trace. Seems like 10 is a popular guess! I will be posting a video this afternoon to count out what's in the estimation jar. You can count the cars along with me to see how close you are.
DeleteAvery estimates there are 4 objects in the jar
ReplyDeleteThanks for your guess, Avery. I will be posting a video this afternoon to count out what's in the estimation jar. You can count along with me to see how close you are.
Delete