I love teaching estimation. I learned a trick years ago that I teach every year and tweak here and there. I call it the CINDERELLA Estimation Trick. 

But first, let me take a selfie. No wait, I mean, let's freshen up our memories. And this is how I begin the class. I ask them about what Fairy God Mother does to Cinderella. They tell me that she changes her clothes, etc, etc. Then I ask what happens to Fairy God Mother after she changes Cinderella. The answer is she disappears. This leads me into the lesson. 

First up - rounding to the nearest tens. 

Let them know that the place value you want to round to is CINDERELLA. So in this case, the tens digit is cinderella 

56 - the 5 is Cinderella. 

Then I say, the number right behind Cinderella, is Fairy God Mother. Sometimes Fairy God Mother has power and sometimes she doesn't. If she is a 0, 1, 2, 3, 4 - She has no power and can't change Cinderella. If she is 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, then she has power and changes Cinderella into one number higher. 

56 -------> 6 (Fairy God Mother), has power, so she will change Cinderella to one number higher (6). If Fairy God Mother did not have power, Cinderella would stay the same (5). 

Next, Fairy God Mother has to disappear. So I say, she goes, "POOF," and turns into a zero. And we ALL say Poof really loudly every time this happens. 

56 ------> 60. 

43 ------> 40..Fairy God Mother (3)  has no power so she can't change Cinderella. But the fairy goes Poof anyway.








After they get the hang of this, we move on to rounding to the nearest 100. So now Cinderella is the hundreds digit, and the number next to her in the tens digit is Fairy God Mother, and the last number next to Fairy God Mother is the assistant who also disappears with the godmother.

673 <----6 is Cinderella. 7 is Fairy God Mother. 3 is assistant. Fairy God mother has power so she changes the 6 into a 7, then she goes POOF and her assistant goes POOF so 673 <---- 700.

Finally, what if it is a 3 or higher digit number but you want to round to something in the middle. For example - 359 rounded to the nearest tens. 

Now we change the story a little bit. Any number that is in FRONT of Cinderella (the number we want to round to), is the evil step sister(s) and we don't do anything to her (them)
- we leave her alone and write her just the way she is. Then we continue the regular steps of the Cinderella rule for the tens and ones digit. 

So 453 to the nearest tens -----> leave 4 alone (evil step sister), and just write it. Then leave Cinderella  alone (5) because Fairy God Mother doesn't have power (3). So the answer is 450.

Soooo long story LONGER, the kids love this method! They get it, they use it, and they remember it!

 Here is a free End of Year Writing activity..."I Mustache (Moustache) You to Get Ready for (the next) Grade." I've included templates for 1-5th grades and a few mustaches to cut out and put on for a picture. It'll make a great end of year bulletin board display!

 Just a cute moment I captured! 

Moving on...

Pictures stop. Phone is full. That was number 4. 

Why, yes it would be great. Also, it's been the same routine since the beginning of the year. We have a month left. When shall we learn the procedures?? 

Have a great weekend!!

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Amna

Working till the last minute!! Well, I still have a bunch of time to go before the end of school...it ends June 27th for kiddos and July 3rd for teachers!! I'm teaching into JULY folks. And since the kids are already down with summer fever, this product I reviewed for the Flip Flop Blog Hop, came at the perfect time. 

I got to use one of Julie's Roll and Write pack. She's over at Second Grade Surprises, and I am in love with this product. 

The one I used was a Surf theme. Basically, it works like this: A student uses a dice to roll a story. They do three rolls. The first roll gives you the character, the second roll gives you the setting, and the third roll gives you the plot. Students use it during writing time. I had my students do it during center rotations. 

Julie provides super cute writing templates, which if I had the luxury to use color ink at work, I'd so print them off in color. But no such luck, so some colored paper would do. 

Oh my gosh, students LOVEDDDDD this. It was soo different than what they are used to. We have never done anything like that. They absolutely loved the fact that they were in charge of their own story and that everyone would have a different outcome. It was cool to see them excited about who or what they rolled about. For example, one girl rolled a story that would have to do with Timmy Turtle, on Treasure Island, running away from pirates. Every student got a different result, and the stories came out so creative, because they felt in charge of their own writing. 

You have to check out all of Julie's Roll and Write products. She has a ton. I plan on doing these activities next year, so I am thrilled I got introduced to it this year. Thanks Julie for the awesome resource. Please click on the picture below to take you to the product on TPT. 

P.S.

I would love it if you would follow this little blog on Blog Lovin' by clicking the icon in the sidebar!!

P.P.S. 

My whole STORE is 20 percent off this Memorial Day weekend. You can check out my Wrapping Up the Year Memory Book that Julie reviewed on her blog. It's super cheap with the sale!

P.P.P.S.

My memory book is part of a bundle that also includes my End of Year Awards (my new best seller), and End of Year Writing Craftivity. You can enter to win the three product bundle on the Rafflecopter below!!

Now, continue through the hop by visiting Lapbooks in the Library at Desertnites.com

a Rafflecopter giveaway

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Amna

This is a hugeeee Five for Friday teachers!! ...Well the huge part comes at the end...but maybe, sort of, kind of, you can read the rest of this post too... :)

Math fun this week included a little review on geometry and fractions. These activities are oldies but goodies. We built 3-D models with candy and toothpicks. They used MnM's to write the fraction of each color in their packet. And they created fraction caterpillars with fuzz balls. Love this chapter in math!!

I recently started making encouraging my 11 year old daughter to use her artistic talents to try to create clipart. She just started this past weekend and this is what she has accomplished so far.These are three sets I have up on my TPT shop and they are freeeeeee. 

So she still has to learn the program a little better. One of the things we are having trouble with is how to save each PNG file so that it only saves the image and not the entire page that the image was drawn on. Meaning, she saves it and then when I  import it into Powerpoint, the box around the image that you can make bigger or smaller to change the size of the image, comes out really large, and not just the size of the image itself. Does that make sense? She is using Art Studio on the Ipad and if anyone has any helpful hints, please let me know. 

My poor little baby girl got this horrible infection behind her ear. When we took her to the doctor, they said it was a regular inner ear infection that spread out. We had no idea and she never even complained! I'd show a picture, but it's gross. I picked her up from the babysitter early this week and her hair was cut on one side! The babysitter's mom noticed the infection and decided to cut off one side of hair so that it stopped irritating her. So then we were left with lopsided hair. I didn't want the other side to be just as short, so instead we went to the hair cutter's and she did this style..you know...the rocker chic style...long on one side and short on another. Well, I def. think she is rocking it!

No, I didn't skip number 4. It's just that this last thing is sooooo huge that it deserved two spots on this week's list. That...and maybe I ran out of pictures to share. 

Anyway...you have to click on the image below to take you to the blog post where my Primary Peeps and I got together to give away a $100 Visa gift card!! Wouldn't that just be amazing??? I would just spend it all on TPT products or clipart for the new year. So pleaseeee click on the picture to take you where you can enter the Rafflecopter!!

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Amna