As many of you know we have a new addition to
our classroom – the Estimation Machine! Estimation is an important skill for
our second graders to develop and it's one they will continue to revisit
through the years. The Estimation Machine is a really fun way to bring that
skill to life in the classroom.
Many of you guessed at Open House how many erasers were in the Estimation Machine! On Friday we went through and counted how many erasers were actually in the Estimation Machine. We brainstormed possible ways to count all the erasers: group them in 10s, each table would receive a pile of erasers and we would add up each table’s erasers count with a calculator, and counting my ones. We took a class vote on what strategy to use and the groups of 10 strategy won. Students did a wonderful job working with their partners to make groups of 10. We added all the partnerships together to find out how many erasers were in the Estimation Machine. Many jaws dropped when we realized 510 erasers were in the Estimation Machine. Many students thought there were between 100 and 200 erasers in the Machine. Students jaws dropped even more when we went through the estimation guesses and realized Caitlin’s brother had guessed 510! He made a perfect estimation!
Many of you guessed at Open House how many erasers were in the Estimation Machine! On Friday we went through and counted how many erasers were actually in the Estimation Machine. We brainstormed possible ways to count all the erasers: group them in 10s, each table would receive a pile of erasers and we would add up each table’s erasers count with a calculator, and counting my ones. We took a class vote on what strategy to use and the groups of 10 strategy won. Students did a wonderful job working with their partners to make groups of 10. We added all the partnerships together to find out how many erasers were in the Estimation Machine. Many jaws dropped when we realized 510 erasers were in the Estimation Machine. Many students thought there were between 100 and 200 erasers in the Machine. Students jaws dropped even more when we went through the estimation guesses and realized Caitlin’s brother had guessed 510! He made a perfect estimation!
Since Caitlin’s brother was closest, Caitlin
has taken home the Estimation Machine to fill for next week. Next week the student whose estimation is
closest to the actual number will take the estimation jar home to refill with a
new item. This cycle will continue throughout the school year. Some suggestions for items to put in the
Estimation Machine are:
- Animal cookies
- Beads
- Beans
- Bolts
- Bottle caps
- Crayons
- Cotton balls
- Corks
- Drinking straw halves
- Erasers
- Gumballs
- Goldfish
- Macaroni
- Marbles
- Marshmallows
- Nuts
- Paper clips
- Pasta
- Puzzle pieces
- Rubber bands
- Seashells
- Stickers
- Sunflower seeds
- Toothpicks
- Washers
Thanks to all of you who made an estimate at
Open House! Your responses made for a
room full of excitement on Friday morning.
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