Use place value understanding to round numbers through the millions to any place!
To better understand rounding (nearest 1,000 and beyond)…
LET’S BREAK IT DOWN!
Trees
Let’s say you want to round the age of one of the world’s oldest trees to the nearest thousand years. The tree is the Jaya Sri Maha Bodhi in Sri Lanka, and it is 2,307 years old. You know you can either round up to 3,000 or down to 2,000. You can use a number line to help you. Draw a number line with 3,000 and 2,000 marked on it. Then mark the middle point which is 2,500. You know that 2,307 is less than 2,500 and you can mark that on the number line. You can see that it closer to 2,000, so you round down to 2,000. Try this one yourself. Round the age of a tree that is 1,706 years old to the nearest thousand years.
Sports Stadiums
Let’s say you want to round the number of fans a stadium holds to the nearest ten thousand. The Manchester United stadium holds 74,140 fans. To round that number to the nearest ten thousand, you look at the place to the right of the ten thousands place, which is the thousands place. The digit 4 is in that place. That’s less than 5, so you round down to 70,000. Try this one yourself. You went to a football game that 38,762 people attended. Round the number of people who attended to the nearest thousand.
Experiment
Let’s say you put a video of an experiment on the internet and it got 645,726 views. You want to round that number to the nearest hundred thousand. You look to the place to the right of the hundred thousands place, the ten thousands place. The digit 4 is in that place. Since 4 is less than 5, you round down to 600,000. Try this one yourself. A video of a different experiment got 521,056 views. Round the number of views to the nearest ten thousand.
Outer Space
Let’s say you see a comet passing by earth, and the comet is 1,630,020 kilometers away. You would like to round that number to the nearest million. Since the digit in the place to the right of the millions place is a 6, you round up to 2,000,000. The comet is about 2,000,000 kilometers away. Try this one yourself. There’s another comet that is 1,430,276 kilometers away. Round that distance to the nearest million kilometers.