Friday, October 21, 2011

Edible Estimation Jar-Kids Project

Candy. Candy. Candy. It must be October.

Here is a SWEET IDEA for you because I think you are pretty sweet !

Edible Estimation Jar

This is a great activity to help your students learn the concept of estimation. Let me tell you how it works:

Empty see through container. I have used old mayo containers in the past.
"Edible Estimation Jar" Label
Small blank pieces of paper and a container to put the guesses into.

How it works:
1. You fill it up the first time with some tasty treat.
(When I taught school I printed instructions for the other side of the jar. I made sure we only had treats that were individually wrapped. My example is obviously not individually wrapped but it's okay because it's just for my kids and we love to share germs with each other!)

2. On the small blank pieces of paper have each student estimate how many are in the jar.

3. When everyone has guessed, you can count the pieces in the jar.

4. This is a great time to practice counting by 1's, 2's or 5's or maybe even 10's. As you count them as a group, write the exact amount on the board. You can talk about how many tens and ones are in the number.

5. Then read outloud each guess. If the guess is close to the exact amount, have the students give you a thumbs up or a thumbs down if it is not.

6. The student that is the closest gets to had out a piece of candy to everyone and gets to take the empty estimation jar home and they are in charge of filling it up. You can also let the student get an extra piece because they were the closest.
(One thing that I did was that after everyone got one piece of candy, all the extra went in my candy jar. It was great because I rarely had to buy candy. The candy was used with other incentives in my class)

TIP: If you are doing this with young children, you don't want to have too many pieces for them to estimate. Lots of time, the kids will just guess 100 for anything that looks like alot. I would suggest using up to 20 for Kindergarten age kids and maybe more as the year goes on.

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