ALEX Learning Activity

  

Show Me the Benchmark (Rounding Lesson)

A Learning Activity is a strategy a teacher chooses to actively engage students in learning a concept or skill using a digital tool/resource.

You may save this Learning Activity to your hard drive as an .html file by selecting “File”,then “Save As” from your browser’s pull down menu. The file name extension must be .html.
  This learning activity provided by:  
Author: Samantha Wallace
System:Limestone County
School:Cedar Hill Elementary School
  General Activity Information  
Activity ID: 2745
Title:
Show Me the Benchmark (Rounding Lesson)
Digital Tool/Resource:
Show Me the Benchmark Number Cards
Web Address – URL:
Overview:

Students will be working with a partner to generate benchmark numbers (to the nearest ten, hundred, or thousand) for number cards.  They will use the benchmarks to round the number using place value understanding.  The students will be standing at the front of the class to create an embodied number line using teacher and peer support.
  Associated Standards and Objectives  
Content Standard(s):
Mathematics
MA2019 (2019)
Grade: 4
9. Round multi-digit whole numbers to any place using place value understanding.
Unpacked Content
Evidence Of Student Attainment:
Students:
  • When given any multi-digit whole number, use place value understanding to round to any place.
  • When given a number which is rounded to a place value, identify an unknown number that rounds to that given number.

    • Example: What are all possible numbers that result in 460 when rounded to the nearest ten? Answer: 455, 456, 457, 458, 459, 460, 461, 462, 463, 464.
  • Use rounding in a variety of situations, to include estimating, problem solving, and determining reasonableness of answers.
Note: Expectations are limited to whole numbers less than or equal to 1,000,000.
Teacher Vocabulary:
  • Round
  • Place value
  • Ones
  • Tens
  • Hundreds
  • Thousands
  • Ten thousands
  • Approximately
  • Halfway point
Knowledge:
Students know:
  • The relationship among positions of digits in a number and place value. They can use that knowledge to round numbers to nay place.
Skills:
Students are able to:
  • Use place value strategies to round multi-digit whole numbers to any place.
Understanding:
Students understand that:
  • rounding multi-digit numbers is an estimation strategy used when writing the original number as the closest multiple of a power of 10.
Diverse Learning Needs:
Essential Skills:
Learning Objectives:
M.4.9.1: Add and subtract within 1000.
M.4.9.2: Apply signs +, -, and = to actions of joining and separating sets.
M.4.9.3: Add and subtract single-digit numbers.
M.4.9.4: Recall basic addition and subtraction facts.

Prior Knowledge Skills:
  • Define the commutative and associative properties of addition and subtraction.
  • Subtract within 100 using strategies and algorithms based on the relationship between addition and subtraction.
  • Subtract within 100 using strategies and algorithms based on properties of operations.
  • Subtract within 100 using strategies and algorithms based on place value.
  • Add within 100 using strategies and algorithms based on the relationship between addition and subtraction. Add within 100 using strategies and algorithms based on properties of operations.
  • Add within 100 using strategies and algorithms based on place value.
  • Recall basic addition and subtraction facts.
  • Define regrouping, total, sum, difference and solve.
  • Add and subtract two two-digit numbers with and without regrouping.
  • Determine the value of the number in the ones, tens, hundreds and thousands place using concrete models or drawings and strategies based on place value.
  • Match the number in the ones, tens, hundreds and thousands position to a pictorial representation or manipulative of the value.
Alabama Alternate Achievement Standards
AAS Standard:
M.AAS.4.9 Round a whole number from 1 to 49 to the nearest ten (using a number line and hundreds chart.)
Learning Objectives:

Students will be able to round multi-digit whole numbers using place value understanding.

Students will be able to:

  • generate benchmark numbers to the nearest ten, hundred, or thousand

  • use benchmark numbers to round a number to the nearest ten, hundred, or thousand
  Strategies, Preparations and Variations  
Phase:
During/Explore/Explain
Activity:

  • The teacher will need to set up a "number line" at the front of the room.  Only the two endpoints need to be marked.  This could be tape on the floor, the edges of a carpet or two chairs placed some distance apart.

  • Choose one student to select a number card.

  • Choose two more students to come up and generate two benchmark numbers based on the rounding directions (nearest ten, hundred, or thousand) for the number.  Once the two students agree on the two benchmarks, they should write each one on a dry-erase board and then stand at the two endpoints of the number line.

  • The first student should move towards the benchmark based on where the number would be placed on the number line.  This can be done as a whole class, with the students yelling out game-show-style which direction to move, or the student can decide on his/her own.

  • Once the student has chosen which direction to move (and rounded the number), the teacher should discuss the correct answer and choose new students to start again.

  • Notes:

    • The numbers can be given a real-world context occasionally throughout the lesson to reinforce the purpose of rounding. For example, if the number card says 278, the teacher might say, "Pretend we have 278 seats in the cafeteria.  About how many seats is that?"

    • The directions can be kept simple by rounding 2-digit numbers to the nearest ten, 3-digit to the nearest hundred, and 4-digit to the nearest thousand.  Once the students have mastered this level, complexity can be introduced with trickier combinations, such as rounding 4-digit numbers to the nearest ten. 
Assessment Strategies:

Listen to student discussions to determine if students are able to generate appropriate benchmarks and round to the nearest ten, hundred, or thousand.

You may want to use a student checklist to keep track of which students have participated in each part of the activity to observe for both benchmark-generating and rounding from each student.
Advanced Preparation:

  • The teacher will need to set up a "number line" at the front of the room.  Only the two endpoints need to be marked.  This could be tape on the floor, the edges of a carpet or two chairs placed some distance apart.

  • Print and cut apart the number cards.

  • Gather two dry-erase boards and markers.
Variation Tips (optional):

  • You may use only the 2-, 3-, or 4-digit number cards depending on student need.

  • As a challenge, the teacher can select two benchmarks and have a student choose a number that would fall between them.  Another student can round the number.
Notes or Recommendations (optional):

This activity can be used as a stand-alone activity or together with the following activities as a complete lesson:

Guess the Tickets (Rounding Task) (before) 

Feeding Frenzy (Rounding Game) (after)
  Keywords and Search Tags  
Keywords and Search Tags: benchmark, estimate, hundreds, number line, place value, rounding, tens