On Saturday I attended two Wedding showers for my niece who is getting married this Friday. The second one was at her Aunts home. We played a game- guess the total chocolates in the jar game. I had to leave early so I asked the grandma of the bride if I came close to the correct count with my guess of 139. She pulled out the paper and looked, it was 140! I couldn't believe it! Well really I can believe it, I am good about chocolate. I know my chocolate!!
So, later when I called to let my mom know that we had made it to Price safely, she told me that I was the winner of the chocolate jar!! Cool!! However, I told grandma to the bride, that if I won, don't send it home to me, just give it to the Bride. But they tried another number, it Angel was with 132 and of course she wasn't there either. I am teaching her how to be really good with chocolate too, obviously!!!
So then the next number was 152, it was my sister- all the good guesses came from my side of the family. I guess we can tell which family knows their chocolate! So my sister did the same thing I was going to do if I won, she gave it to the bride. She will need her chocolate!!!That was so fun. I am sorry I missed the announcing of the chocolate count, but just hearing that I won was so funny and fun.
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So as I was typing this, I thought this could be a Kid Friendly Friday entry.
Take a plastic or glass jar, flower vase, empty clear bottle, zip lock- really anything you can see through. Then put a lot of something in it, big is better than small. It is really better to start with small amounts like 20 to 30 things. Then they can count the items with you and not loose interest. You can even do smaller if you want.
I can almost see "Cyberchase" the PBS show in my mind as I envision doing this game. They have episodes on estimating and I love their math connections. Too bad we don't have TV any more, because I know my kids would still watch it. One is never too old to have their math reinforced by repetition and fun.
Some ideas for counting are: wrapped hard Candy, miniature wrapped chocolate (my favorite), legos, marbles, army men, plastic snakes or frogs, nuts in shells, gumballs, etc.
I can almost see "Cyberchase" the PBS show in my mind as I envision doing this game. They have episodes on estimating and I love their math connections. Too bad we don't have TV any more, because I know my kids would still watch it. One is never too old to have their math reinforced by repetition and fun.
Some ideas for counting are: wrapped hard Candy, miniature wrapped chocolate (my favorite), legos, marbles, army men, plastic snakes or frogs, nuts in shells, gumballs, etc.
Then guess how many items are in the bottle. Help your kids estimate the number by counting a layer and multiplying the number of layers. I did this with Angel who is 11 and she got the second closest count at the party! She now understands how to do the game. I got a kick out of hearing one girl say, I guessed a 2 digit number! Even 99 is way too low, I doubt that she knew how to guess-timate!
Guess-timating is something we can all learn and having fun at home playing games can help our kids learn how to guess-timate. This can be an important skill, not only for winning the candy jar, but in other areas of our lives too. Too bad I can't think of anything right now but I am sure it is a useful talent or skill!! Just kidding..........
OK, I guess I should mention how I use guess-timation. I guess-timate how much food will fit into a cooler when we need to fill it. I guess-timate how many jugs of milk I can fit into my fridge. I guess-timate how many cookies will fit into a plastic bag. I guess what size container or bag I need to put my leftovers away. I guess what size bag I need to have to pack for a vacation.
I guess how much food I need to fill my stomach- not really, I love to stuff myself with the good stuff and I don't stop until I can't fit any more in. No guessing there!! LOL....
I guess how much food I need to fill my stomach- not really, I love to stuff myself with the good stuff and I don't stop until I can't fit any more in. No guessing there!! LOL....
Have fun and help your kids learn how much will fit!
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Join in Kid Friendly Friday and by adding your post to
Mr. Linky on Sarah's Blog 'I Blame My Mother'.
Post on kid friendly recipes, reviews, giveaways, crafts, games, books.....anything!
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Hope you find something useful! Thank you for participating!
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Great idea---maybe if we used a ziploc, we do this in a long car ride to kill time! Thanks and Happy Easter!!!
ReplyDeleteI really like this idea because (after seeing all of your examples) we don't realize how much we use this skill. I have an old apothacary jar that I just cleaned out that would be perfect for this. i like the idea of using a ziplock for the car as well. Thanks for linking! Enjoy your weekend~
ReplyDeletegreat ideas! thanks!
ReplyDeleteGood idea on teaching/learning estimating. It is tricky! It seems like little children pick such wacky number guesses "5 billion" "2" etc.
ReplyDeleteI will have to give this a try!
Have a great Easter weekend!
I used to be a 5th grade teacher before staying home with my kids, and one of my favorite math units was "guesstimation". We did a lot of fun things with that and especially with all different kinds of candy in a jar! They "ate" that one up for sure! ;)
ReplyDeleteThis is so tough for kiddos, even if there are only ten things in the container a lot will still say 100@
ReplyDelete