Increase Number Sense With This Estimating Year 3 Activity

Exercise your students’ spatial awareness and reasoning skills with this estimating year 3 activity! This resource encourages students to develop estimation skills, practise counting and reflect on their reasoning—all through a fun and interactive jar activity. 

Simply fill a clear jar with everyday objects like buttons, beans or cotton balls, and let students sketch, estimate and analyse. With three different templates, this set is perfect for individual, paired or group work and can be easily adapted for various grade levels.

This estimating year 3 activity includes:

• Single Jar Worksheet
• Double Jar Worksheet 
• Triple Jar Worksheet 

How to Complete This Estimation Activity

This estimation activity is easy to set up and complete with your students. Here’s how!

Materials Needed

• Clear jars (1–3, depending on the worksheet)
• Small objects (e.g., buttons, cotton balls, beans, paper clips)
• Printed copies of the chosen worksheet (Single, Double or Triple Jar version)

Instructions 

1. Fill one, two or three clear jars with different quantities of small objects.
2. Hand out the appropriate version of the worksheet based on your lesson plan.
3. Ask students to look at the jar(s) and draw a sketch of what they see in the jar(s) on their worksheet.
4. Have students write down their estimate of how many objects are in each jar, and explain their reasoning. 
5. Open the jar(s) and count the objects together as a class or in small groups. Students record this number on their worksheets.
6. Students compare their estimate to the actual count, reflecting on how close their guess was and surmising why. 
7. If you have time, hold a class discussion about which estimation strategies the students found most or least effective. 

Have even more jars? Download the editable Google Slides version of this estimating year 3 activity and add as many as you like! 

How to Download This Estimating Quantities Worksheet Set

Downloading this estimating quantities worksheet set is easy. Simply click the drop-down arrow on the download button and choose between the PDF and Google Slides versions of this resource. 

This resource was created by Lauren Borst, a teacher and a Teach Starter collaborator.

Want More Estimation and Rounding Activities? 

We’ve got you covered! Take a look at the additional estimation and rounding activities below. 

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Estimation Worksheets (Addition and Subtraction)

Teach your students how to use their rounding skills to estimate sums and differences with these maths worksheets.

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Estimating Sums and Differences Interactive Activity

Download our interactive activity designed to sharpen your students’ understanding of estimating sums and differences with rounding and compatible numbers.

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Interactive Rounding Game — "Four Corners"

Play this interactive rounding game with your class or assign it to individual students for a fun way to practise rounding whole numbers.