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Rounding Cards

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Purpose:

You can help your child practice rounding numbers.

What you need:

A deck of cards with the face cards and jokers removed (aces count as 1s and 10s count as 0s).

What to do:

Shuffle the cards and deal out 4 in a row. This represents a 4-digit number (eg. 3836).

Ask your child to read you the number.

Ask your child to round the number to the nearest 10

Ask your child to round the number to the nearest 100

Ask your child to round the number to the nearest 1000

Ensure that your child understands the rules for rounding correctly. You round to whichever number is closest, but if the digit being rounded is a 5 then you round up, rather than down. For example 4125 rounded to the nearest 10 is 4130, not 4120.

What to expect your child to do:

  • Read the number correctly.
  • Accurately round numbers to the nearest 10, 100, or 1000.

Variations:

Change the number of digits in the number.

He Kupu Māori:

round (a number) whakaawhiwhi (-a)
the closest ten te tekau e pātata ana
round up whakaawhiwhia ki runga

He Whakawhitinga Kōrero:

  • Rīwhiriwhia ngā kāri. Whakatakotoria ētahi kāri e whā, taha ki te taha, ko ngā mata ki runga. (Shuffle the cards. Place down four cards next to each other, face up.)
  • Pānuihia tēnei tau. He aha tēnei tau? (Read me this number. What is this number?)
  • Whakaawhiwhia te tau ki te [mano/rau/tekau] e pātata ana. (Round the number to the closest [thousand/hundred/ten.)
  • Kei waenganui pū te 4,125 i te 4,120 me te 4,130. Me whakaawhiwhi ki runga, ki rāro rānei ki te tekau e pātata ana? (4,125 is in the middle of 4,120 and 4,130. Should we round up or down to the closest ten?)

Download a file of this activity:

PDF (262KB)