LessonPlan

Group members:
Marina Avila, Jazmine Marquez,
Dulce Lopez

Grade Level:
5th

Date:
Oct. 5th

, 2015

Lesson Topic:
Student-invented strategies for whole-number computation and estimation
TEKS: 1.c S
elect tools,
including
real objects, manipulatives, paper and pencil, and technology
as
appropriate,
and techniques,
including
mental math, estimation, and number sense
as appropriate, to
solve
problems.
3.a
Estimate to determine solutions to mathematical and real-world problems involving addition, subtraction,
multiplication, or division
10.a
Define sales tax
Standards-based
objectives:
Materials:
Activities

SWBAT select his or her own tools and strategies to solve problems.
SWBAT estimate solutions to problems involving addition, subtraction, multiplication, and
division.
SWBAT Estimate an items real cost by estimating and adding sales tax.
Google Drive lesson slides, Problem worksheets, white sheets of paper
1. Introduction Compatible Pairs
a. On projector, students will see random numbers which they will have to pair
up to answer certain criteria (like Add up to 500, Multiply to more than 100, etc.)
without using pencil and paper.
b. Students briefly explain how they were able to find the pairs.
2. Multiplication and division problems
a. Students are given a sheet with 2 problems. They solve in pairs with two
directions: Do not use the traditional algorithm and find 2 different ways of
solving the problem.
b. Teams should be prepared to explain how they solved the problems.
3. Importance of estimation.
What is estimation?
a. Some real-life situations may require us to estimate a quantity and others may
not need an exact result.
b. On screen, students read a list of situations and they must decide if they would
need to compute an exact answer or if an estimation would suffice.
4. Estimation warm-up
a. Over or Under? Students are shown visual scenarios where they must estimate
if the result is over or under the given quantity.
b. Students are then given different operations. In pairs, they decide whether the
results will be over or under a given number (without using traditional
computation).
5. Estimating results in problem-solving
a. Thats Good Enough Students are given a problem. In their pairs, they are
asked to write out the steps they would take to solve the problem without
actually working them. Students share their ideas. Then they work the first two
steps and decide if the estimated result is good enough.
b. On the projector, three problems will be displayed, one at a time. Students, in
pairs, will have 15 seconds to write down an estimate for the problems solution.
Then in class discussion students share how they estimated the results.

LessonPlan

c. Strategies are written on the board, classified into a category of possible

strategies:
student-invented strategy, related problem sets, front-end methods,
rounding, compatible numbers, clustering, or using tens and hundreds.
6. Sales tax
a.
Assessment

What was the method?

Students are given a last problem with an estimation given. They are asked to answer
the question How do you think that estimate was arrived at? Was that a good
approach? Then students are asked to provide their own estimate using a different
strategy from the pool of strategies we recorded on the board before. Students write this
on a sheet of paper and turn it in.