A great activity to include during a family math night event is the estimation jar. Kids love to make predictions and they get so excited in the hopeful anticipation of being the winner.

Including an estimation jar is also a great marketing tool. Kids will want to come to the event so they have the opportunity to make a guess, so be sure to advertise it.

I like to include a jar for K-2 and another one for 3-5/6. The K-2 jar is usually smaller that the K-5 jar and I fill the K-2 with Hershey’s and the 3-5 with jelly beans or something smaller than Hershey’s. But the jars don’t have to be different sizes just as long as the K-2 jar has larger items which makes it a little easier for those little tikes.

Click here to print out the estimation jar slips.

What I always find fun is watching the parents get involved in helping their child come up with an estimate. I’ve even seen parents get out their phone and crunch numbers on the calculator app. The two parents in the photo worked on the problem for quite a while. Not sure where their kids were…

Since determining the winner takes going through all the slips of paper in the estimation jar, the winner is usually announced the next day. You could, however, have a time limit to guessing then go through the slips before the event is over and announce the winner that night. It’s up to you. However you do it, having an estimation jar is a fun addition to a family math night event.