Front End Estimation Worksheets
We are about to expose you to a form of math that is slightly to help you make quicker decisions. These are not the best decisions, but they paced in a way to help accelerate your ability to be more accurate. The skill we are using here is called front end estimation and it only focuses on the higher place values of a number. While this these values are not precise or even accurate in many situations, they can be relied on to indicate whether a choice may be good or bad. It won’t tell you how many runs the Yankees, Rangers, dodgers, or Sox will win by, but it will give you a strong indication of who will most likely win in their respective contests. This selection of worksheets and lessons help students get an idea of the final value of a subtraction or addition problem.
Aligned Standard: 3.OA.D.8
- Step-by-Step Lesson- You will also find a quick purpose for this unit posted on this one.
- Guided Lesson - Remember that we are focused on the highest place value here.
- Guided Lesson Explanation - This should help you charge right through this topic.
- Front End Big Letters Worksheet - I wonder if you find the hand written font easier to follow?
- Fish Friendly Sums and Differences Worksheet 2 - Help give the fish some purpose by solving a disagreement for them.
- Answer Keys - These are for all the unlocked materials above.
Homework Sheets
A really good mix of challenges can be found here for you.
- Homework 1 - Front-end estimation only uses the number in the left column.
- Homework 2 - The friendly fish twins are starving. Estimate each sum or difference by rounding to the nearest tens or hundreds and draw a line from the fish food to the correct hungry fish.
- Homework 3 - You can estimate by using front‐end estimation with and without adjusting.
Practice Worksheets
Practice sheets two and three are very unique for this topic. Give them a try!
- Practice 1 - If you are working with a 2 digit number, you will round to the nearest tens place.
- Practice 2 - Clustering can be used when the numbers are close to each other.
- Practice 3 - Use estimation to find the sum of each block. If the answer is 90 color the block red, if the answer Is 100 color the block blue, if the answer is 110 color the block yellow
Math Skill Quizzes
This are very standard quiz formats to work with.
- Quiz 1 - If you are working with a 3 digit number, you will round to the nearest hundreds.
- Quiz 2 - Use Front‐end Estimation to find answer.
What is Front-End Estimation?
There are times where we need quick answer that we would term educated guesses. They may not be the best answer, but they give us an idea how to make a competent decision quickly. Rounding off is one of those techniques that makes complicated mathematical problems simple and easy to solve. When there are too many numbers to deal with, a lot of people prefer rounding off complicated numbers to make things less complex for them. The only problem with rounding off numbers is that the final result that we get an approximate answer and not the exact answer. In many situations that is a good thing. Sometimes we have limited time to make an accurate decision, and this is one way to insure that this is possible. To take the final result close to the exact answer, we can use a number of different techniques. One common technique that students may use for estimation of problems where they have rounded off the numbers is front end estimation. It is a form of estimation that generates the final answer that is close to the estimation of the sum or difference.
To do this we look at the front of the number which is the highest place value and round to that nearest value. To do this we must consider lower place values. There are many times the two or more values we are comparing share the same rounded value. When this occurs, revisit those values again rounding to the second highest place value. If that gives you similar values, keep moving down until you have a clear distinguishable winner.
Front-end estimation will help save you time to make better and more knowledgeable decisions. You will often need to evaluate the values before you perform any operations and that is not only good, it is expected.