![\"estimation](\"http:\/\/www.familymathnight.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/estimation-table-slip-300x268.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nThis piece of paper is priceless to me as an educator. \u00a0It allows me to clearly understand the steps this child took to arrive at his\/her answer – an answer that turned out to be exactly two Hersheys kisses off!<\/p>\n
It starts with a multiplication problem: \u00a04 x 27. \u00a0It’s hard to see from this photo, but if you counted the number of Hersheys that can be seen on the side of the jar, I’m guessing this student got ’27’. \u00a0Then, if you look at the number of rows of 27 that could be made from one side of the jar to the other side, I’m guessing that that’s where the ‘4’ came from. \u00a0From there, the student knew s\/he had to multiply the 27 Hersheys by the 4 rows. \u00a0Since, from this point forward the student\u00a0uses addition, I’m going to guess that the student either wasn’t comfortable with double-digit by single-digit multiplication or simply did not know how to do it.<\/p>\n
So, instead, s\/he used\u00a0number sense by breaking down 4 x 27 into a simpler problem: \u00a0(27 x 2) + (2 x 27) which s\/he wrote as (27 + 27) + (27 + 27). \u00a0From there it was simply finding the answer of ’54’ and adding that twice to get 108.<\/p>\n
This is an amazing example of a student that has a clear mastery of number sense – breaking a multiplication problem down into a more manageable addition problem. \u00a0It’s also a great example of the distributive property of multiplication, although there’s a good chance\u00a0the student has no idea what ‘distributive property’ means. \u00a0It doesn’t really matter; it’s the concept that’s important.<\/p>\n
And this is\u00a0what I love about the estimation jar – it gives kids an opportunity\u00a0to practice number sense within the context of something fun…candy. \u00a0And because there’s a sense of excitement and anticipation over who will get the closest and win all the candy,\u00a0kids\u00a0want<\/em> to participate.<\/p>\nFrom now on I’m going to make sure I include scrap paper at all of my Estimation Tables.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I was cleaning up the Estimation Table at my last Family Math Night event when I noticed a slip of paper\u00a0next to the Hershey’s jar. \u00a0Taking a closer look at it,\u00a0I realized I was looking at the thinking behind someone’s guess as to the number of Hersheys in the jar. This piece of paper is priceless to me as an educator. \u00a0It allows me to clearly understand the steps this child took to arrive at his\/her answer – an answer…<\/p>\n
Read More Read More<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[123,76,51,44,184,45,52,58,57],"tags":[102,160,224,81,67,70,94,61,142],"class_list":["post-4064","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-activities","category-family-math-night-2","category-kids-and-math-3-5","category-kids-and-math","category-elementary-mathematics-2","category-number-sense","category-number-and-operations","category-problem-solving-kids-and-math","category-problem-solving","tag-common-core-state-standards","tag-estimation-jars","tag-estimation-table","tag-family-math-night-activities","tag-k-5-math","tag-nifty-numbers","tag-number-and-operations-2","tag-number-sense-2","tag-parent-engagement"],"yoast_head":"\nThe Estimation Jar - Number Sense in Action - Karyn's Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.familymathnight.com\/blog\/?p=4064\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Estimation Jar - Number Sense in Action - Karyn's Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I was cleaning up the Estimation Table at my last Family Math Night event when I noticed a slip of paper\u00a0next to the Hershey’s jar. \u00a0Taking a closer look at it,\u00a0I realized I was looking at the thinking behind someone’s guess as to the number of Hersheys in the jar. 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<\/a><\/p>\n