Rounding numbers is an important maths skills that oughtn't be overlooked each year of primary school.
When children round numbers, they are gaining a deeper sense of the value of a number and how each number can relate or connect with other numbers.
It's also an important skill for children to estimate.
Today's generation of children will, like us today, do most of the calculating using calculators on their mobiles. They won't be the generation scratching out sums butcher's paper.
To use a calculator effectively, we need to be able to round / estimate numbers. Once we have punched in a sum into our calculator, we should think: does this answer make sense? If we don't, we could wrongly assume an answer is correct even if we accidentally typed in a wrong number.
Valuing the skill of rounding / estimating numbers is key for a learner's number sense to deepen.
We started our inquiry sharing what we already knew about rounding numbers with our table partners. From this, theories, wonderings and reasoning skills were shared.
Which key concepts might help us the most to think deeply about rounding numbers?
We decided to use FORM, FUNCTION and CONNECTION.
We started with FORM and used the think-pair-share routine and came up with these thoughts and remembered the importance of visualising in maths:
We then decided to use FUNCTION and again used the think-pair-share routine to come up with these thoughts:
We repeated using CONNECTION:
This lead to interesting discussions
The big picture:
Using this understanding, we our now more appreciative of the learning experiences we will undertake to improve our rounding / estimating skills.
Related Links to Rounding:
Rounding numbers in mathematics is the process of approximating a numerical value to a specified degree of accuracy. This involves identifying the digit in the place value to which rounding is required and considering the digit immediately to its right. If that digit is 5 or greater, the digit being rounded increases by 1 if less than 5, it remains the same. Rounding simplifies calculations and helps communicate values more efficiently, especially when dealing with large datasets or when precision beyond a certain point is unnecessary.
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