Transum Maths Software

Approximation

There are 366 different Starters of The Day, many to choose from. You will find in the left column below some starters on the topic of Approximation. In the right column below are links to related online activities, videos and teacher resources.

A lesson starter does not have to be on the same topic as the main part of the lesson or the topic of the previous lesson. It is often very useful to revise or explore other concepts by using a starter based on a totally different area of Mathematics.

Main Page

Approximation Starters:

Rounding 1dp: Round off the given numbers to 1 decimal place then add the answers together.

Rounding 2dp: Round off the given numbers to 2 decimal places then add the answers together.

Rounding Whole: Round off the given numbers to the nearest whole number then add the answers together.

 

Small images of these Starters ::  Index of Starters

Index of Advanced Starters


Suggested

Rounding Ten

Rounding Ten

Round the numbers to the nearest whole number or the given power of ten.

The short web address is:

Transum.org/go/?to=rtn

 

Curriculum for Approximation:

Year 5

Pupils should be taught to use rounding to check answers to calculations and determine, in the context of a problem, levels of accuracy more...

Pupils should be taught to round any number up to 1 000 000 to the nearest 10, 100, 1000, 10 000 and 100 000 more...

Pupils should be taught to round decimals with two decimal places to the nearest whole number and to one decimal place more...

Year 6

Pupils should be taught to round any whole number to a required degree of accuracy more...

Pupils should be taught to solve problems which require answers to be rounded to specified degrees of accuracy more...

Years 7 to 9

Pupils should be taught to round numbers and measures to an appropriate degree of accuracy [for example, to a number of decimal places or significant figures] more...

Pupils should be taught to use approximation through rounding to estimate answers and calculate possible resulting errors expressed using inequality notation a<x≤b more...

Years 10 and 11

Pupils should be taught to apply and interpret limits of accuracy when rounding or truncating, {including upper and lower bounds} more...

Exam-Style Questions:

There are almost a thousand exam-style questions unique to the Transum website.

Feedback:

Comment recorded on the 2 May 'Starter of the Day' page by Angela Lowry, :

"I think these are great! So useful and handy, the children love them.
Could we have some on angles too please?"

Comment recorded on the 3 October 'Starter of the Day' page by S Mirza, Park High School, Colne:

"Very good starters, help pupils settle very well in maths classroom."

Comment recorded on the 11 January 'Starter of the Day' page by S Johnson, The King John School:

"We recently had an afternoon on accelerated learning.This linked really well and prompted a discussion about learning styles and short term memory."

Comment recorded on the 25 June 'Starter of the Day' page by Inger.kisby@herts and essex.herts.sch.uk, :

"We all love your starters. It is so good to have such a collection. We use them for all age groups and abilities. Have particularly enjoyed KIM's game, as we have not used that for Mathematics before. Keep up the good work and thank you very much
Best wishes from Inger Kisby"

Comment recorded on the 12 July 'Starter of the Day' page by Miss J Key, Farlingaye High School, Suffolk:

"Thanks very much for this one. We developed it into a whole lesson and I borrowed some hats from the drama department to add to the fun!"

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"A set of real life savers!!
Keep it up and thank you!"

Comment recorded on the 23 September 'Starter of the Day' page by Judy, Chatsmore CHS:

"This triangle starter is excellent. I have used it with all of my ks3 and ks4 classes and they are all totally focused when counting the triangles."

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"I think that having a starter of the day helps improve maths in general. My pupils say they love them!!!"

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"A Maths colleague introduced me to your web site and I love to use it. The questions are so varied I can use them with all of my classes, I even let year 13 have a go at some of them. I like being able to access Starters for the whole month so I can use favourites with classes I see at different times of the week. Thanks."

Comment recorded on the 21 October 'Starter of the Day' page by Mr Trainor And His P7 Class(All Girls), Mercy Primary School, Belfast:

"My Primary 7 class in Mercy Primary school, Belfast, look forward to your mental maths starters every morning. The variety of material is interesting and exciting and always engages the teacher and pupils. Keep them coming please."

Comment recorded on the 14 September 'Starter of the Day' page by Trish Bailey, Kingstone School:

"This is a great memory aid which could be used for formulae or key facts etc - in any subject area. The PICTURE is such an aid to remembering where each number or group of numbers is - my pupils love it!
Thanks"

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"An absolutely brilliant resource. Only recently been discovered but is used daily with all my classes. It is particularly useful when things can be saved for further use. Thank you!"

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"I have used your starters for 3 years now and would not have a lesson without one! Fantastic way to engage the pupils at the start of a lesson."

Comment recorded on the 1 May 'Starter of the Day' page by Phil Anthony, Head of Maths, Stourport High School:

"What a brilliant website. We have just started to use the 'starter-of-the-day' in our yr9 lessons to try them out before we change from a high school to a secondary school in September. This is one of the best resources on-line we have found. The kids and staff love it. Well done an thank you very much for making my maths lessons more interesting and fun."

Comment recorded on the 26 March 'Starter of the Day' page by Julie Reakes, The English College, Dubai:

"It's great to have a starter that's timed and focuses the attention of everyone fully. I told them in advance I would do 10 then record their percentages."

Comment recorded on the 10 September 'Starter of the Day' page by Carol, Sheffield PArk Academy:

"3 NQTs in the department, I'm new subject leader in this new academy - Starters R Great!! Lovely resource for stimulating learning and getting eveyone off to a good start. Thank you!!"

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"This is an excellent website. We all often use the starters as the pupils come in the door and get settled as we take the register."

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"A really awesome website! Teachers and students are learning in such a fun way! Keep it up..."

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"Thank you so much for your wonderful site. I have so much material to use in class and inspire me to try something a little different more often. I am going to show my maths department your website and encourage them to use it too. How lovely that you have compiled such a great resource to help teachers and pupils.
Thanks again"

Comment recorded on the 19 June 'Starter of the Day' page by Nikki Jordan, Braunton School, Devon:

"Excellent. Thank you very much for a fabulous set of starters. I use the 'weekenders' if the daily ones are not quite what I want. Brilliant and much appreciated."

Comment recorded on the 2 April 'Starter of the Day' page by Mrs Wilshaw, Dunsten Collage,Essex:

"This website was brilliant. My class and I really enjoy doing the activites."

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"This resource has made a great deal of difference to the standard of starters for all of our lessons. Thank you for being so creative and imaginative."

Comment recorded on the 18 September 'Starter of the Day' page by Mrs. Peacock, Downe House School and Kennet School:

"My year 8's absolutely loved the "Separated Twins" starter. I set it as an optional piece of work for my year 11's over a weekend and one girl came up with 3 independant solutions."

Comment recorded on the 10 April 'Starter of the Day' page by Mike Sendrove, Salt Grammar School, UK.:

"A really useful set of resources - thanks. Is the collection available on CD? Are solutions available?"

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"Find the starters wonderful; students enjoy them and often want to use the idea generated by the starter in other parts of the lesson. Keep up the good work"

Comment recorded on the 3 October 'Starter of the Day' page by Mrs Johnstone, 7Je:

"I think this is a brilliant website as all the students enjoy doing the puzzles and it is a brilliant way to start a lesson."

Comment recorded on the s /Indice 'Starter of the Day' page by Busolla, Australia:

"Thank you very much for providing these resources for free for teachers and students. It has been engaging for the students - all trying to reach their highest level and competing with their peers while also learning. Thank you very much!"

Comment recorded on the 9 May 'Starter of the Day' page by Liz, Kuwait:

"I would like to thank you for the excellent resources which I used every day. My students would often turn up early to tackle the starter of the day as there were stamps for the first 5 finishers. We also had a lot of fun with the fun maths. All in all your resources provoked discussion and the students had a lot of fun."

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"Just a quick note to say that we use a lot of your starters. It is lovely to have so many different ideas to start a lesson with. Thank you very much and keep up the good work."

Comment recorded on the 19 October 'Starter of the Day' page by E Pollard, Huddersfield:

"I used this with my bottom set in year 9. To engage them I used their name and favorite football team (or pop group) instead of the school name. For homework, I asked each student to find a definition for the key words they had been given (once they had fun trying to guess the answer) and they presented their findings to the rest of the class the following day. They felt really special because the key words came from their own personal information."

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I rate this site as a 5!"

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"I am an NQT and have only just discovered this website. I nearly wet my pants with joy.
To the creator of this website and all of those teachers who have contributed to it, I would like to say a big THANK YOU!!! :)."

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"Really good site. Lots of good ideas for starters. Use it most of the time in KS3."

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"Dear Transum,

I love you website I use it every maths lesson I have with every year group! I don't know were I would turn to with out you!"

Comment recorded on the 1 February 'Starter of the Day' page by M Chant, Chase Lane School Harwich:

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Thanks for such a great resource!"

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"Thank you for sharing such a great resource. I was about to try and get together a bank of starters but time is always required elsewhere, so thank you."

Notes:

Approximating a quantity is often to get a value that is easier to use or understand, at the cost of making it less precise. This approximation is very important in dealing with answers to mathematical problems and making them relevant to the real world. Rounding to a given number of decimal places or significant figures is required of pupils.

The error introduced when approximating a value may be further magnified with subsequent calculations. Understanding this error and how it can be minimised is another important aspect of this topic.

See also the "Rounding" and "Estimating" Topic pages.

Approximation Teacher Resources:

Rounding Snap: If the last card put down equals the previous card to the nearest whole number then all players race to shout SNAP!

Approximation Activities:

Rounding Ten: Round the numbers to the nearest whole number or the given power of ten.

Rounding DP: A self marking exercise requiring students to round numbers to a given number of decimal places.

Rounding SF: A self marking exercise requiring students to round numbers to a given number of significant figures.

Rounding Snap: If the last card put down equals the previous card to the nearest whole number then all players race to shout SNAP!

Rough Answers: An exercise on rounding values in a calculation to find an approximate estimate of the answer.

Upper and Lower Bounds: Determine the upper and lower bounds when rounding or truncating quantities used in calculations.

Approximation Videos:

Rounding Video: A reminder of how to round numbers to significant figures, decimal places and to the nearest power of ten.

Upper and Lower Bounds Video: A reminder of how to find the limits of accuracy of rounded values.

Approximation External Links:

Links to other websites containing resources for Approximation are provided for those logged into 'Transum Mathematics'. Subscribing also opens up the opportunity for you to add your own links to this panel. You can sign up using one of the buttons below:

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Other

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Suggested

Upper and Lower Bounds

Upper and Lower Bounds

Determine the upper and lower bounds when rounding or truncating quantities used in calculations.

The short web address is:

Transum.org/go/?to=bounds

 

Teaching Notes:

Many Transum activities have notes for teachers suggesting teaching methods and highlighting common misconceptions. There are also solutions to puzzles, exercises and activities available on the web pages when you are signed in to your Transum subscription account. If you do not yet have an account and you are a teacher, tutor or parent you can apply for one by completing the form on the Sign Up page.

A Transum subscription also gives you access to the 'Class Admin' student management system, downloadable worksheets, many more teaching resources and opens up ad-free access to the Transum website for you and your pupils.

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Tuesday, April 16, 2019

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