Areas of Interest

Engagement through fun in math

Growing up, I always struggled with mathematics and never had much passion for the

subject. Like many other students, I struggled to wrap my head around many of the concepts

being explained to me in classes, and I got so frustrated with the subject and thought I would

never improve. Today I have a new appreciation for math, and how it influences our lives, as an

educator, I know that I will have students in my class who felt the same way I did growing up

and sometimes still do. Because of this, I believe that to help students learn math more readily

we need to engage them in a fun and exciting way, one of the reasons I ended up liking math

more was because I began to learn it in more exciting ways. The following lesson touches on

subjects of estimation in mathematics, but adds more engaging and fun activities to go along

with the more traditional forms of assessment, it is lessons like these that I will implement in my

teaching style to help students be more motivated in the subject of math.

Subject: Grade: 3 - 4 Length: One class Date: January 8th,

Mathematics (1 Hour) 2018

Stage 1: Pre – Lesson

Outcomes:

Students will be able to:

 Understand the basic concepts of rounding and estimating with whole numbers
 Recognize that estimation is a very useful skill in their lives
 Understand the concept of rounding (to replace a number with an approximate and
more simple number)
 Be able to round to the nearest 10
 Utilize estimation in a relevant situation to them
 Apply estimation to fun activities in mathematics

New Brunswick Curricular Objectives

GCO: Developing number sense

 SCO: N3: Demonstrate an understanding of addition of numbers with answers to 10 000 and
their corresponding subtractions (limited to 3 and 4-digit numerals)

NCTM:
• using personal strategies for adding and subtracting
• estimating sums and differences
• solving problems involving addition and subtraction

Materials Location
 Chalk board / writing surface  Front of class
 Worksheet 1  Behind desk in blue folder
 Worksheet 2  Behind desk in blue folder
 Jars x 2  Under teacher desk
 Candy  Under teacher desk
 Paper or plates to put candy on  In drawer beneath desk

Stage 2: Lesson Planning and Implementation

Hook/Explanation with rounding in estimation (20 m)
Teacher will
 Write on board the equation 10 x 40
and 13 x 42 (could be addition for
younger grades)
- Ask students to try and solve
each question
- Ask them what they think is the
easier question to solve?
Students will
 Students will remain in seats
 Students will volunteer to answer
which question is easier to answer and
why
 Students will follow along with
question on board and round to the
nearest 10

 Tell students that there is a way we can  Students will work at their tables to
make the equation 13 x 42 easier solve sheet together or individually to
through rounding round to the nearest 10

- To round to the nearest 10, you

must round your numbers so
that your last non-zero digit is
in the tens place, and you have
a zero in the ones place.
 - If the digit in the ones place is
lower then 5 then you round
down and keep the number in
the tens place the same

- If the number in the ones place

is higher then 5 or 5 then you
round up the tens place number
by 1

 Hand out sheet of basic 2 digit numbers

for class to round up to the nearest 10
for practice (See Appendix A)

Exploration with Estimation (20m)

Teacher will
Explanation:
 An estimate is a number that closely
approximates the answer to a
mathematical computation. An
estimate is calculated mentally rather
than by completing an exact
calculation by hand or with a
calculator.
 This skill can help you in real life
when purchasing items and using
mental math to help solve harder
problems
Class problem:
 On Board: If we want to buy 3
different board games at a store that
cost $17, $23, $26 we can add up the
prices one by one or we can use
rounding to estimate the amount of
money we will need to buy all the
games.
Students will
 Students will remain in seats
 Students will listen to the explanation
of estimation and how it is important
to understand that you are not looking
for the exact right answer.
 The skill is meant to help in real life
for understanding the rough amount of
money needed to buy certain things or
knowing how many people are in a
certain area for example.
 Students will follow along with
example problem on board for
estimation in purchasing 3 toys
 Student will work at their tables in
small groups to round the 3 numbers
to the nearest 10 then add them all
together to get the estimation of the
money needed

- Ask students to round each

number in their head from the
equation
 - 17 = 20
- 23 = 20
- 26 = 30
- = $70

Group Work: Have students work together

on handout with example of varying numbers
with items on them to round and then estimate
the amount of money they will need to buy all
the items. (See Appendix B)

- Cannot use calculator or tools

emphasise mental math

- We do not need exact answer, only

estimation

Explaining reasonable and unreasonable Estimation (20 m)

Teacher will
 Explain to students that there are
reasonable and unreasonable
estimations in observing objects
 Looking at the candies in mason jar
we can establish that 15 is an
unreasonable estimation, just as an
estimation over 500 for example is
also unreasonable.
 Have students look at jar of 10 candies
as a bassline to help them estimate the  Students will volunteer to explain
amount in the bigger jar
 Ask the students to guess the number
of items in the box Let everyone have
a guess then write the lowest and
highest sum guessed on the board
Students will
 Students will move to matt
 On matt students will follow along
with the explanation of reasonable and
unreasonable estimations by observing
the jar of candies shown by teacher
 Using example of jar with 10 candies
students will each make an estimation
of how many candies are in the jar
ways in which they could count the
contents of the jar
 In groups of 2 the contents of the jar
will be amongst the students to be
grouped into tens

 Ask the students about different ways
to count the items in an easy way
Discuss different options
 Talk about the advantage of counting
items by grouping into groups of tens
 Once each group has grouped their
candies as them to re estimate the
amount in the jar before adding them
all up to get sum
  Let the students work in small groups
and divide candies amongst them

 Have the groups count their items by

grouping the candies into groups of
ten and then add them all together

 Before each group reports their sum

let the kids change their previous
guesses if they want to

 Let one group at a time report their

sum to you then sums on the board

 Add all sums together to get answer

 Share candy at end of lesson 😊

Evaluation and Differentiation

Evaluation
 Evaluation will be based upon the
worksheets 1 and 2 and the group
activity at the end of class
 Collect student worksheets for future
reference
 Observe the student’s ability to work
with one another and individually
during worksheets and class
discussion and mark down if any need
assistance with topic later to clarify
understanding.
Differentiation
 This lesson involves the class working
together for most of the time which
allows students to assist each other in
the worksheets.
 If student struggles with motor skills
can provides teacher assistance for the
writing aspects of assignment, or give
blocks to assist with visual learning
 The candy in the group activity at the
end of the lesson will help make it
more fun and interesting for
differentiated learners.

Post Lesson Activities

Lesson Evaluation and Revision:
 Write down notes for the next lesson to learn what can be improved or removed from
lesson
 What did the students like?
 What can be added to improve understanding?
 References
A., V.D., Karp, K., Bay-Williams, J.M., & Wray. J.A. (2017). Elementary and
middle school mathematics: teaching development. (5th ed.) Don mills, ON: Pearson
Canada, Inc

National Council of Teachers of Mathematics. (2017). Standards and Position.

Retrieved from NTCM:
http://www.nctm.org/Standards-and-Positions/Principles-and-Standards/Number-and-
Operations/