Allow students to think on their feet by organizing a weekly "Mental Math Monday" session. Incorporate up to 10 questions that involve rounding and estimation and encourage the children to try to work out the answers in their heads. An example of a question may be to tell students that they only have $10 and they have placed a $1.25 chocolate bar, a $5.15 frozen pizza and a $0.75 apple in their cart. Tell them to round the monetary amounts and to determine if they have enough money for the items they wish to buy. You can also include subtraction questions. For more advanced students, the Massachusetts Department of Education recommends "wide-open questions," such as estimating the number of police offers in your city or teachers in your school.
Create Bingo cards that are appropriate to the place value students are currently rounding to. For example, if students are rounding to the nearest ten, include the numbers 10, 20, 30, 40 and so on, randomly on each card. Pass out Bingo markers. Call out numbers that have not yet been rounded. For example, if you called out the number 12, students would place a marker on the number 10. In every other aspect, the activity follows the same rules as a standard Bingo game.
This an activity that students can play in pairs. It combines mathematical strategy of connecting four of their own color pieces in a row and practicing rounding skills. Each pair requires flashcards and a "Connect-Four" game board. Each flashcard should have a rounding question on the front, such as "round 1,067 to the nearest ten" or "round 121 to the nearest hundred." Tthe flashcards should have the correct response on the back. Player 1 reveals the front of the card to Player 2. If Player 2 answers correctly, he can place one of his colored pieces inside the "Connect-Four" frame. Players then switch roles. The first player to have four of her pieces in a row, either vertically, horizontally or diagonally, wins.
Set up 11 hula hoops outside or in a gym. Each hula hoop should have a label, with the labels dependent on the place value being used. For example, if studentsare working on rounding to the nearest thousand, one hula hoop should be labeled 0, the next 1000, the next 2000, and so on. Cut out cards with numbers that students will have to round. If students are rounding to the nearest thousand, than any number between 0 and 10,000 would suffice. Make five cards for each student and scatter them around the space. When you blow the whistle to start, students run as fast as they can to find number cards and place them inside the appropriate hoops. Time the class. Check the hoops with the students to make sure the numbers were placed correctly. Repeat the activity and see if the class can improve their previous time.