What Is Estimation? 

Are your students struggling with the concept of estimation? While this is a tricky concept for young learners to grasp, it is an important one that will be used in their daily lives! While students may have heard this term in relation to guessing how many jelly beans are in a jar, students begin to use estimation with the 4 operations. Let’s take a look at a quick way to explain estimation to your students.

Estimation is a thoughtful guess about the value of something. In order to make a thoughtful guess, different strategies are used with whole numbers, such as rounding and using compatible numbers.

Estimation is a helpful skill in many parts of life, like when you’re shopping and need to estimate the cost of items or when you’re doing math and want a quick idea of what the answer might be without doing a long calculation. 

Looking For 3rd Grade Estimation Worksheets? Try a Maze Instead!

If you are looking for extra practice pages for your students to complete when teaching about estimating sums and differences, you have come to the right place! Teach Starter has created a set of 3 math mazes for students to refine their rounding skills and add or subtract numbers.

• Maze 1: Rounding to the nearest 10 with two-digit numbers
• Maze 2: Rounding to the nearest 10 with three-digit numbers
• Maze 3: Rounding to the nearest 100 with three-digit numbers.

To complete the mazes, students will begin in the “Start Here” box. They will round each of the numbers and determine the sum or difference. Guide students to find the correct answer and color in the correct box. Students will work their way through different problems until they stop at the “End Here” box.

Each maze also comes with an included answer key for quick and easy grading!

Download and Print Your 3rd Grade Math Mazes

If you are ready for your students to work through these mazes, head over to the green download button! Here, you will find the quick-print PDF file or the editable Google Slides document. If selecting the Google Slides option, please note that you will first be prompted to make a copy of the resource to your personal drive before accessing it.

This resource was created by Cassandra Friesen, a teacher in Colorado and a Teach Starter Collaborator. 

Don’t stop there! We’ve got more activities and resources that cut down on lesson planning time:  

teaching resource

Estimating Sums and Differences by Rounding and Compatible Numbers – Worksheet Set

Supercharge your students’ math skills with our estimation worksheets! Download now to master the art of rounding and using compatible numbers for lightning-fast calculations.

teaching resource

Estimating Sums and Differences Interactive Activity

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

teaching resource

Estimating Sums and Differences Matching Activity and Extension Task

Guide your students to estimate addition and subtraction sentences by rounding and compatible numbers with this matching activity.