Estimation Station Revisited (and a Giveaway!)

I've been using an Estimation Station activity in my room for years. I always start it at Open House with the parents and then it becomes a weekly activity in our room. I posted about the specific way I do it with the kids with some free printables right around this time last year. You can visit that post {HERE}.

Recently, I was given the opportunity to review the Estimation Station from Educational Insights so of course, I jumped on it! As usual, I debuted the activity at Open House. I put the jar out with directions for the parents near the sign-in sheets and such and have parents make the first guess of the year.
The next morning, we have our first Estimation Jar activity of the year in class. We take all of the guesses and order them from least to greatest. This year we used Post-it notes and we lined them up on the wall. This worked a lot better than using the scrap paper squares like I did last year. As you can read about in my original post,  we do a lot more with the numbers as the year goes on, but for the first time we just concentrate on ordering the numbers.
Another difference this year is the way we counted the items. I used to have the previous week's winner help me count the items, but the new kit from Educational Insights comes with a small scoop. The scoop will fill the jar 8 times. So now we have some options, for example we can count the number of items in one scoop and multiply it by eight (or add 8 times). I decided to use the scoop to give each child a few marshmallows and then had each of them count their little pile. Then I pulled up this online calculator and had each child tell me their number as I added it on the calculator. Next week, I'll let the winner work the calculator on the Smartboard.

I liked this method much better than having the whole class watch one kid count, especially when the jar actually contained over 400 marshmallows!! I may vary my method depending on the contents of the jar. Either way, the closest guess gets to take the jar home to refill for Monday to start the whole thing over again.

I updated my parent letter to send home to include the cuteness that is my new Estimation Station!
Click {HERE} to download from GoogleDocs. Again, you can see my old post for the original form and some other ways that I used the Estimation Station jar in my class.

I'm loving the upgrade from my original Dollar Tree jar to this kit from Educational Insights! Along with the cuteness factor, it comes with the scoop I mentioned for teaching how to use a benchmark to estimate. It also comes with a teacher guide that has lots of practical ideas and information as well as their own parent letter explaining the purpose of the jar and ideas to fill it. The top part of the jar separates from the base, so you can only send home the top portion with the winner. It's washable, which may come in handy! So, how would you like this super cute new Estimation Station jar for your classroom? The generous folks at EI are ready to give one to a lucky blog reader. Just enter using the Rafflecopter widget below. Good Luck!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

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68 comments

  1. Oh my gosh! I love this SOOO much! I hope I win! Thanks and love your blog!

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  2. I love this estimation center! WOW ~ so adorable. It also happens to fit perfectly with my candy themed classroom!

    Brittany
    Sweet Seconds

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  3. I love the estimation station! I would love to use it!

    Allie
    The Gypsy Teacher

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  4. Wow, this product looks so fun! It would definitely be a fun update for my estimation jar. I love that it comes with the proportional scoop to help the kids make smart estimations! Thanks for hosting a great giveaway! :)

    Cathy VerSteeg
    cathy@missversteeg.com
    www.missversteeg.com

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  5. I would love to have this in my second grade class! Perfect for my center!
    sdavis6281@hotmail.com

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  6. I love it! My kindergarteners just started learning about estimation last week, so this would be a perfect addition to our class. :)

    celeste@mail4me.com

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  7. I love the idea! It'd probably be good for me since I am terrible at estimation!!
    Liz
    Teaching in the Valley

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  8. I am so excited about this idea and mostly that you send it home to be refilled!!!! Genius! I am implementing this ASAP!!!!! You are the BEST! reagan.tunstall@gmail.com

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  9. What a great idea! I just went back and read your original post - awesome! What a great way to bring so many math concepts into one fun activity! Thank you for sharing! (and giving away!!)
    Meg!

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  10. This would be so much fun in my classroom! For both me AND my students!

    Emily
    eah719@hotmail.com

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  11. I would love to be able to retire my old JIF Peanut Butter jar as my estimation station! This one is adorable and I love the idea of usin the scoop for counting and even more great estimation ideas too!!!

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  12. I love how the scoop can be filled 8 times and you can have 8 groups count and add their numbers together. What a great idea for a whole class activity! I would love one of these!

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  13. I think my class would love it!
    lraines78@gmail.com

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  14. I teach 3-5th math & this would be an amazing way to get ALL my levels involved!

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  16. Oops, I'll try this again!

    I love the Estimation Station! I imagine it could be used in a variety of ways!

    Sally from Elementary Matters

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  17. The estimation station is such a wonderful idea.. my kids (only having 6 of them) would really enjoy this and get fired up for learning estimation/math!! :)

    Laura
    boudls89@yahoo.com

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  18. I love this idea! I've never used one in my classroom, but after reading this I want one!!

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  19. My class would love this! Thanks for the idea!

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  20. What a fun idea. Would love to use this in our classroom.

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  21. I've always had good intentions for having an estimation jar. This would be a great addition to my classroom for both myself and the students!

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  22. You can also pour some out for each group to organize into piles of 5 or ten and then ask each group how many piles they have and then combine each group's total to get your class total if you use something like color tiles, unifix cubes, or beans in your jar.

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  23. I have a parent night on Monday so this was perfect timing! I would love to win the container from Educational Insights.
    jlpawlik@charter.net

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  24. What a fun way to estimate!

    Elizabeth
    epolston at rowland dot k12 dot ca dot us
    Mrs. Polston's Kindergarten

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  25. I use an estimation jar in my class too. I love this new one and Love the idea of having the patents lick off the year!

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  26. I would love to have this to use in my classroom. I like to let my students take home things like this to increase family involvement.

    kellybrown28021@gmail.com

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  27. The estimation station looks greats. What a great activity to get everyone involved in estimating.

    Amber
    ambs98@nc.rr.com

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  28. This would be wonderful in my classroom this year! My students are going to need much more hands-on instruction and this would be perfect!

    Sara :)
    Smiling In Second Grade

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  29. What a way to add a twist to estimation. Love the scooper for counting.

    Yearn to Learn Blog
    taskcard123@yahoo.com

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  30. I love this idea. What a great way to estimate.

    Amy
    ames2883@yahoo.com

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  31. I love this idea. What a great way to estimate.

    Amy
    ames2883@yahoo.com

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  32. I do estimation station a few times a year, but would love to incorporate it more. Thanks for the inspiration!

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  33. Love this idea! Hope to win, but if I don't I better start thinking of what I'll use for my own!

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  34. I love the scoop to give kids a baseline for their estimation.

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  35. I would LOVE to use this in my classroom! It is so cute and I really think it engage the kids!

    œKaryn
    A is for Apple B is for Blog
    Kideducator@comcast.net

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  36. I want to do this in my room! I love it!
    smbeckma@yahoo.com

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  37. This activity would make such a great addition to our math calendar wall. Right now we just use the piggy bank drawing for money to count or a hundreds chart. The kids really need something more interesting and I love the idea that it is a home-school connection project!

    Misty
    Think, Wonder, & Teach

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  38. So cute! Much cuter then my current estimation jar and I love the scoop!
    Lisen

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  39. what a CUTE way to have an estimation jar!!

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  40. I would love to use this estimation center in my 2nd grade classroom!

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  41. I love this activity! What a great way to review so many math skills.

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  42. I am doing this activity in my room this year and I just love the container for the Estimation Station! How perfect for a classroom! Thanks for offering this giveaway and good luck to all those hoping to win this for their classroom! Fingers crossed!!!

    frederickjennam@gmail.com

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  43. How perfect! Love it! My 2nd graders would love it.

    Christina
    prec0ci0us~at~bellsouth.net

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  44. I love it!!!! I've been wanting to do something like this in my room.

    Kelly
    teacupteacher3@aol.com

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  45. An awesome way to practice estimation every week and the kids would love it!

    Deana
    deana.kahlenberg@gmail.com

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  46. Cool! It's up the ante on plain old estimating!

    Thanks,
    Jane
    www.learninginthelittleapple.blogspot.com

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  47. So cute! The kids in my class would love it, especially if I filled it with candy every time!

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  48. I think this will be great for students to do during morning work!

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  49. I have just been using a plain old jar. This would be fantastic!

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  50. I like the scoop idea so that the kids can count about how many fit in one scoop then try to use that process to figure out the total! Pretty nifty idea!
    Patty
    prutenbar@sturgisps.org

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  51. This is a great giveaway! My second graders would love to do this activity each week!
    Sara
    hoocrew2@gmail.com

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  52. Ooh, I didn't even know they had this! The scoop is such a great tool for teaching the process of estimating, and not just making random guesses. I would love to use this in my room!!

    Jenny
    Luckeyfrog's Lilypad

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  53. Such great ideas for estimating! I would love to win one to use in my first ggrade class:-)

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  54. I think it is a motivating and fun way to get my kids interested in estimating!

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  55. This would be a great way to get my students involved and to help build number sense.

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  56. This would be a great way to get my students involved and to help build number sense.

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  57. We do an estimation station in my classroom too. It's one of my kids' favorite activities. I LOVE the jar!

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  58. I would love an estimation station. Estimation is such a hard skill for my little ones to develop.

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  59. This would be a great addition to calendar math time!

    Jana
    Thinking Out Loud

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  60. What a great product! I've been using an old jar all this time, this would be way better. Thanks for the opportunity.

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  61. I would love to do this in my classroom!! :)
    Sandra
    Sweet Times in First
    sweettimesinfirst@gmail.com

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  62. You always have such great ideas!

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  63. This would be so much fun to have in the classroom as a weekly center. I can see so many possibilities. I love the fact that there is a scoop to teach kids the concept of a benchmark. Lisette.diaz@browardschools.com

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  64. So cute! Like you said, definitely an upgrade from a random jar I had laying around!

    Meg
    Third Grade in the First State

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  65. Great Ideas ! I can't wait to use them. I am teaching math for the first time in 5 years and that will be a great addition to my teaching. Thanks :)

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  66. I love having an estimation jar in my room. I find that estimation is a very difficult concept for students to master.

    mkwunderl@me.com
    psychedtobeinsecond.blogspot.com

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  67. How cute is that jar! I'd love to add this idea to my classroom! Thanks for the chance to win!

    Kelly_S_
    bbumblebee@msn.com

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