Rounding to the nearest whole number

Required materials

• supermarket receipt
• a pen and paper
• a calculator

See Materials that come wih this resource to download:

• Rounding to the nearest whole number activity (.pdf)

What to do

Give your child a supermarket shopping receipt and look at the prices together.

Choose some items from the receipt for your child to round to the nearest dollar or whole number. Remember that it is a convention to round 50 up to 100.

Write down the prices, rounded to the nearest dollar.

Item	Receipt	Round to nearest dollar
Bananas	$2.79	$3.00
Bread rolls	$5.58	$6.00
Kūmara	$3.81	$4.00
Taro	$6.42	$6.00
Onions	$2.50	$3.00

Use the calculator to add up the receipt prices, and then add up the rounded prices. 

What to expect your child to do 

• Round the numbers to the nearest whole number.

Variations

• Round every item on the receipt and use the calculator to add all the rounded whole numbers together.
• When you go shopping, ask your child to try rounding the prices and adding them up. See how close it is to the actual prices at the checkout. It will be easier if there are not too many items. Remember that you could use the calculator on your cell phone. 

He kupu Māori

dollar	tāra
cent	hēneti
round (a number)	whakaawhiwhi (-a)
rounded price	utu whakaawhiwhi
receipt	rīhiti
supermarket	hokomaha

He whakawhitinga kōrero

• Anei te rīhiti mai i te hokomaha. Me tirotiro e tāua. (Here’s the receipt from the supermarket. Let’s have a look at it.)
• Whakaawhiwhia ngā utu ki te tāra e pātata ana. (Round the prices to the nearest 10 cents.)
• Tuhia ngā utu whakaawhiwhi. (Write down the rounded prices.)
• Tāpirihia ngā utu whakaawhiwhi. (Add up the rounded prices.)
• Pēhea nei te pātata o te tapeke whakaawhiwhi ki te tapeke i utua. (How close is the rounded total to the total that was paid?)