Unit 3: Number Talks

Estimating Measurements

Students can have opportunities to make estimates when they estimate the measure of an object (e.g., the mass of a hockey puck), or when they need to find objects that have a given measure (e.g., find objects in the classroom that have a mass of approximately 1 kg). Instruction should focus on the strategies that students use to estimate and on the effectiveness of various methods. Throughout measurement activities, teachers should help students understand that estimation is more than a good guess – it requires using available information to produce a reasonable estimate. Students should also recognize that estimates are neither right nor wrong. Frequent opportunities to estimate allow students to understand that experience and the refinement of estimation skills help to produce more accurate estimates.

Same or Different

This routine is powerful because it fosters so many curricular competencies, including communication, reasoning, constructing arguments, etc in relation to mathematical ideas. Brian Bushart, with the support of several other amazing Math educators have created an outstanding website with examples that have been categorized into galleries based on math concepts. Some potential learning intentions for curricular competencies include

• Reasoning and Analyzing - use reasoning to construct viable arguments when comparing objects, shapes, and numbers

• Understanding and Solving - engaging in problem solving

• Communicating and Representing - explaining and justifying similarities and differences

• Connecting and Reflecting - identifying relationships between objects, shapes, and numbers