How many students are camping today?

By Thomas Hammerlund -

Today Grades 3, 4, and 5 were away on a camping trip. In our school that is the bulk of the student body, so this estimation activity was ripe for the taking.


This year I have been trying to have my students estimate more. Today I asked my students the question above: Estimate how many are camping today.

They, of course, didn't know what "estimate" meant, but they need to learn the correct vocabulary. So I used the word "about" to explain what I meant. I started by asking how many students were in each class. 

One boy knew how many students were in Grade 5, so I asked the class to instead "estimate" how many students were in the class. 

They still didn't make the connection, so I wrote 20 and 30 on the board and asked which number was closer to their estimate. After they chose 20, I circled it and we moved on to the Grade 4 class.

For Grade 4 I tried a different strategy. Instead of giving them a range, I started counting up from 0 by 5s. I then asked them which they thought was the closest number to the estimate of the Grade 4 class. 

Next, we had a vote for what they thought the G3 student population was. For this number, we had a vote. 28 won.

I then added up their estimation (72) and added up the actual numbers (62). 

Not bad for their first time.

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