I have been an elementary teacher for 5 years and one thing that I have noticed in the classroom is that estimation and mental math are important math skills but they are hardly made a priority.  In this class students will work on their number sense skills by warming up with a question about place value, rounding, or mental math.   Number sense is the ability to understand how numbers work and finding patterns in numbers, these warm up questions are perfect for getting kids ready to think about numbers. 

After the warm up questions students will solve one estimation mystery problem.  These estimation problems are provided to students in stages. Students will receive one clue at a time which they will use to estimate how many objects are in a given space.  Each clue relates to place value, number properties (such as even or odd numbers and prime or composite numbers), and digits. Students use these clues to estimate the mystery number. 

Good estimation skills help students check their answers and determine if their final answer is reasonable. Understanding place value, rounding and mental math are also important skills that students can use to help them check their final answer. 

If your child has ever solved a math problem and their final answer was wayyy off than this class is the class for them! Improved number sense skills will help students determine if their final answer is reasonable or not reasonable. 

You can join at any time to practice those number sense and estimation skills, remember with practice comes mastery! 
This  ongoing course will follow the pattern below, we will go over new questions each week focusing on two skills a week. 

Week of January 9th - Place Value and estimation 
Week of January 16th - Rounding and estimation 
Week of January 23rd - Mental Math and estimation 
Week of January 30th - Place Value and estimation