Rounding Cheer

Rounding numbers is one of those things we struggle with every year.  Sigh.  One of my wonderful partners-in-crime, Diane Chevalier, went the extra mile and performed a cheer for the entire 3rd grade.  She even made her own cheerleading uniform and wore it all day at school. It was tough to get the little boogers all stuffed into one room sardine style but they had a BLAST!

Please excuse the video quality.  I did this with my little point-and-shoot camera.

I found the original cheer in Mailbox a gazillion years ago and we (my teaching buddies and I) changed up the words a bit to suit us.  Here are the words if you're interested:

Estimate, About, Round.
Estimate, About, Round.
Find your number,
Look next door.
4 or less,
Let it rest.
5 or more raise the score!

I teach the kids that "find your number" means to underline the place they are rounding to.  They draw an arrow to the digit to the right of the underlined number on "look next door". 

This cheer provides a great opportunity for the kids to get up and move around during math class.  We spend a lot of time doing this cheer because I want the process to stick with them.  Of course, we teach the underlying concepts before we get to the rote practice.

Do you have any math chants that you do?

2 comments fun, math, rounding