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Subject: Math
Title: How many pennies? - estimating - 
by Anna-Maria Fejer
TOPIC: Estimation
GRADE LEVEL: 2-3

OBJECTIVES: Students will be able to estimate how many pennies are in a jar.

Materials: A Chair for My Mother - by: Vera B. Williams

several large jars of the same size

several small cups of the same size

lots and lots of pennies !!(beans can be used if the whole class will be doing the activities)

Lesson:

Read the book by Vera B. Williams and discuss how the family saved their money.

- How did they know they had enough money in the jar to buy a chair?

- Could they have bought the chair if the jar was only half full?

- Is there a way for us to find out how many pennies could fill the jar without counting all the pennies? Show the students a jar full of pennies. Ask them to write down an estimate for how many pennies there are in the jar. Show students a cup full of pennies and tell them that the cup holds about 100 pennies. Pour the pennies into another jar and ask the students to estimate the number of pennies in the jar. Pour in five more cups of pennies and tell the students that there are six cups of pennies in the jar. (our jar held eight cups of pennies)

- About how many pennies do you think are in the jar now?

- About how many more cups do you think are needed to fill the jar?

Allow the students to repeat this activity with several different sizes of jars and or cups. Have them record their estimates on a worksheet or in their journals. After everyone has finished fill the jars to see how close they were. It is best to use beans if the whole class is doing the activities.

HAVE FUN ESTIMATING!!!!!