Guess-timation Station Jar

To help my Y5’s with number sense as well as groups and sets of objects, I have a Guess-timation Station in my room that consists of a large plastic jar.

Students guess how many coins, cotton balls, Q-tips etc. that are in it each day and write their answer, along with their name, on a guessing slip that they put in the mystery box.

Parents provide the answer on a slip of paper, and during lunch I figure out who has the correct answer or is closest to it.

The jar goes home each night with a different child, along with a laminated note of explanation. Click on the link to view/print the Guess-timation notes home.

At the end of the day, during Share & Tell Time, the student who brought in the jar calls on 3 friends to share their guesses.

We then count the objects out of the jar into a large Baggie and announce the winner, who receives a sticker to put on our Guess-timation Genius poster.

Click on the link to view/print our Guess-timation Genius poster.

The jar goes home with the next student on the list and the Baggie goes home with the student who brought the items.

To encourage participation and promote interest and excitement, the student with the most stickers at the end of the month gets a trip to the treasure box and a certificate.

At the end of the school year, our grand champion, gets a special certificate and prize.  Click on the link to view/print Guess-timation Certificates.

My students really enjoy this activity and I see wonderful improvement in their estimating skills by the time we celebrate 100 Day in February.

I display 25 Baggies of items.  They have to guess which ones contain 100 of something. Most of my students are 90% accurate!

You can buy big plastic jars at The Dollar Store.  It’s a fun and easy activity to set up in your Math Center that I know your students will enjoy.

Click on the link to view/print a Guess-timation Station Center Poster.

If you haven't already done so, be sure and read about my other Guess-timation Station for January by scrolling down.

Guess-timation Station Winter Poster

To help my students understand number sense and groups of things, I have a Guess-timation Station Jar set up in my room.  I also try to have other activities where students look at something and try to guess “how many” or compare--is it more than, less than or equal to this or that?

Another Guess-timation Station that they enjoy, is a large poster that I hang on my white board during January.

Simply cut a piece of tag board in the shape of a snow hill and put a snowman or huge snowflake at the top.

Print or type and glue the words: Guess-timation Station on the hill.

Make a large circle of cotton balls by gluing them on your poster with Elmer’s glue.

Ask students to guess how many cotton balls they think it will take to fill up the snowball.

Jot down their answers on the guess-timation list and hang it next to the poster.

Click on the link to view/print a guess-timation list.

Each day of school choose a student to add a cotton ball to the center of the snowball.

(Just dab a tiny bit of glue on the snowball so that you can easily pull off the center cotton balls and use this poster every year.)

Keep track of how many cotton balls you have already counted using tally marks.  This is a great way to count by 5’s each day.

Click on the link for a Guess-timation Station Tally Mark Sheet

Because my Y5’s lose interest in something rather quickly, I put this poster up for the 1^st day of January and then take it down at the end of the month, but you could keep it up through February as well and be able to count to higher numbers, especially if you live in a colder state where it continues to snow.

To make sure you have the correct number of cotton balls to fill up your snowball and end on the last day of school that you want to count, count that many into a circle and then make your permanent outside circle that big.

Make sure you buy the same size cotton balls each year as they vary from store to store in thickness.

I award a certificate and trip to my treasure box to the winner.

Click on the link for 3 Guess-timation certificates.

Be sure and pop in tomorrow to read about my Guess-timation Station to print those fun FREEBIES!

As always, I’d enjoy hearing from you and your ideas about guess-timation! diane@teachwithme.com