Estimation Jar

We are learning how to estimate.  It is crazy how big things can seem to a child.  We estimated beads, noodles, and beans for our lesson.  The children were sure there were at least a million beads in a little ziplock baggie! We had off the wall guesses from EVERYONE that day!  So I decided we need more a lot more practice.  So now we have an "Estimation Jar" in our classroom.  The students take turns putting their items in the jar.  Everyday there are new items and all of the children get to submit their guesses.  The jar has had buttons, crayons, cards, cowboys and indians, cars, hair beads, etc. This has been a lot of fun for the children.  It gives them something to share with the class.  We have been doing this for 3 weeks and our guesses are a lot more accurate these days.

I used egg cartons to count our items during the original lesson.  The students were not suppose to use the last two egg holes and they were suppose to put ten items in the other 10 holes.  This was a great way for them to practice counting by 10's and understand that there are 10 groups of 10 in 100.