Rounding

I have noticed that, for some reason, children have a tough time grasping the concept of rounding numbers. The teachers on my grade level came up with some strategies to help with this.

1.) First underline the place that you are rounding to. So if you are rounding 5,469 to the nearest ten, you would underline the six because that's the place you are rounding to. This keeps you focused on the correct number. Kids very easily get confused. I have noticed that they often want to round to the first number regardless of what the directions say. I think this is a result of the worksheets they are given in class. When kids are taught to round they first learn how to round to the 10s place so they practice on 2 or 3 digit numbers. Then they learn to round to the 100s place; the practice has 3 or 4 digits. Through this they learn that the place rounded to is always at the beginning. Later on when they are given bigger numbers, they don't understand the difference.

2.) Circle every digit after the one you underlined. That helps kids realize that all of those numbers will become zeros. Sometimes they forget and only make the first number a zero. By circling all of them, they can remember to make them all zeros.

3.) 5-9 rounds up; 0-4 rounds down. To help kids remember which ones round up and which ones round down, use an illustration they are familiar with. We told them that you become a "big kid" when you go to school. You go to kindergarten at age 5, so 5 and up are big kids and round up. Kids under the age of 5 don't go to school so they are "little kids" and get rounded down.

These are some of the tips we used to help kids pick up on rounding. With a little practice, they can use these skills to master this concept.