After

We've been learning how to round numbers.... rounding in the tens and hundreds, and - dare I say it - even in the thousands. This morning, I revisited rounding with my third graders and from the reaction, a few of them even seemed to "get" it.However one of my students was really struggling to round the numbers on a worksheet that I put up on our projection device. When I eventually handed off a row for students to complete independently I could practically see the gears turning as he struggled with the process of rounding a number to the nearest 10: underline the digit in the tens place, look at the digit in the ones place. 4 or less, don't change the tens, 5 or more add another ten. We even have a cute little rhyme to help:

Find the number, go right next doorFour or less, just ignoreFive or more, add one more

After the kids went to their special this morning, I discovered my struggling student's practice page tucked in amongst some papers on a counter. And when I looked at what he had done, I couldn't help but laugh hysterically:

God, I LOVE this job!