The number line
The first step: the number marked between two tens (or hundreds) and the question of which end is nearer. The halfway point shows why 5 rounds up.
Start over?
Teaching guide: how to practise rounding and estimating
Rounding is choosing the nearest round number, and estimating is working with those round numbers to know, in your head, roughly what a calculation will give. This free rounding and estimating worksheet generator builds A4 worksheets to round to the nearest ten, hundred, thousand and ten thousand, round decimals and estimate sums, differences and products, from Grade 3 to Grade 6, with an answer key for every exercise.
Student worksheet 
Answer key Tens, hundreds and thousands
Each number with its place. The tricky cases always come up: a 5 to the right and the 9 that carries into the next place (4,960 → 5,000).
Rounding table
The same number rounded to the nearest ten, hundred and thousand, so pupils see that the answer depends on the place.
Decimals
To the nearest whole number, to 1 and to 2 decimal places, keeping the decimal place even when it is a zero (5.97 → 6.0).
Estimating calculations
Sums, differences and products with round numbers and, if you like, the exact answer too, to compare them.
Is it reasonable?
A calculation already done, sometimes right and sometimes with a big mistake: the estimate tells whether the answer makes sense, as in competency tests.
Frequently asked questions about rounding worksheets
Which grades are these worksheets for?
Grades 3 to 6 (Years 4 to 7). In Grade 3 pupils round to the nearest ten and hundred on the number line and estimate sums and differences; Grade 4 adds thousands and products by one digit; Grades 5 and 6 bring large numbers, decimals and products of two and three digits.
How do I teach the rounding rule?
Look at the digit to the right of the place you round to: if it is 0, 1, 2, 3 or 4 the number rounds down; if it is 5, 6, 7, 8 or 9 it rounds up. The number line makes it visible, and the worksheet can show the rule under the instruction.
What happens when the digit is a 5?
It rounds up, as taught in school: 45 to the nearest ten is 50 and 2.35 to 1 decimal place is 2.4. Every sheet includes this case because it is the one that causes most doubts.
How do I write a decimal rounded to 1 decimal place that ends in zero?
Keep the decimal place: 5.97 to 1 decimal place is 6.0, not 6, because it shows the place you rounded to. The answer key writes it that way.
What is in the answer key?
The rounded number of every exercise, the nearer end marked on the number line, the completed table, the round numbers and the estimate of every calculation (and the exact answer, if you asked for it), and Yes or No circled with the right answer when it is a mistake.
Why practise estimating?
Because it checks whether an answer makes sense before accepting it. That is what competency tests such as PISA ask for: interpreting a result and spotting a mistake with the zeros or the calculation.
What other worksheets go well with these?
The place value worksheets and comparing numbers worksheets build the idea of place, and the column operations and decimal operations give the exact answer to compare with the estimate. Find every resource under maths worksheets.
Is any pupil data sent anywhere?
No. Worksheets are generated in your browser and templates are saved in your browser's memory.
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