Rounding to the Nearest Ten

You will find nothing earth-shattering here... but this is a quick look at what we did with rounding to go from clueless to mastery in three weeks:

 

I introduced rounding by the definition (always our first step) and then by using the Rounding Roller Coaster. Will helped draw it and it is of course laminated.  Then we would write a number between zero and 100 on the roller coaster car (not pictured) and put it on the tracks where it belonged (ex:44 would go beneath the 4).  This was a great visual/manipulative to start with:



Rounding Roller Coaster





Thanks to my teacher friend who told me about the saying, "Five and above, give it a shove!".  That was a great reminder for Will.  We also came up with "0,1,2,3,4... roll back to the floor!". 

 

The big difference maker in Will's understanding was this simple chart I made. It helped him visualize the "tens on the ends".   As always, I wrote out precise steps and also incorporated color coding... two important teaching tips to remember when teaching a visual learner.



Rounding Chart



We worked on the concept for two weeks before things really started to click.  I whipped up some simple worksheets for him to complete which gradually faded the amount of support that he needed until he was figuring out the correct answer all by himself!

 



Write-it-all-out Worksheet



Numbers Only Worksheet



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