How many miles do we have to go?
How much time until lunch? How much will the bill be? How many more items can I buy? How many people are in the room?
These questions are quickly answerable with a little estimation.
Life would be difficult without the ability to use estimation.
For students, estimation is an important skill in order to efficiently and accurately solve math problems. If students need not come up with an exact answer, estimation is the quickest way to get there. Additionally, estimation allows students to check the accuracy of their work. For instance, if a student is asked to solve 125 X 24 and comes up with a product of 250,000, they should recognize their answer can’t be correct. Using estimation to compute 120 X 20 = 2,400 quickly shows the student the place value is way off and they must re-commupute the answer. Estimation isn’t always an easy skill for children to learn. Here are come tips and tricks that may help.
Estimation teaches students that they don’t need to be glued to calculator in order to compute math problems. It allows them to solve problems both in, and out of, the classroom without the need of a calculator. It allows children to solve real life problems by exploring their own curiosities such as, What is the circumference of the earth? It allows them to take a trip to the grocery store, form a budget, split a bill, and use time and distance with ease. Estimation keeps our minds sharp and active. It brings ease to situations that may otherwise cause difficulty.
There are many ways of bringing fun into lessons on estimation. One of my favorite ideas is having an estimation jar. Students can fill the jar with anything they choose (jellybeans, m&m’s, marbles, etc.) The class guesses how many items are in the jar. The idea is to be the closest to the actual number.
Here are a more ideas of incorporating fun activities into instruction on estimation.
Elementary Math Fun 