Rounding to the Nearest Ten

Every year rounding is one of the hardest concepts for my kiddos to understand. Here are some of the tools we use to help make it easier!

100's Chart

Kiddos color the tens columns GREEN, the columns 1-4 BLUE, and the columns 5-9 RED. It is so nice to have the tens on each side of the 100's chart! This makes is easy for the students to tell which ten the target number is closest to! We color the remaining columns as we compare them to a thermometer; color columns 1-4 blue because when the temperature goes down the thermometer turns blue, vice versa with red.

We glued a cardboard strip to the back before inserting the pipe cleaner. This gives the paper strength so that it won't rip as the students use the tool.

*I saw this idea in an Instagram post by Talkin Pinata Teaching and I modified it for my kiddos. Thank you, Talkin Pinata Teaching!

Rounding Review Game

We played this free rounding game in small groups and my kiddos loved it! At the end we saw who the "winners" were (everyone won). Ask the class, "Which group rounded to 20," call on a group to share their answer and repeat for each ten.

Rounding STEM Project

Students will use this tool to "teach their parents" how to round. It was very neat to see the rounding techniques students used as they built their tools! Many students chose to use a number line, similar to our pipe cleaner tool, but others chose to build the "Rollercoaster Model". Check out some of our awesome projects!

What are your favorite strategies to teach rounding?