What is the rule for rounding?

Look at the digit one place to the right of the one you are rounding to. If it is 5 or more, round up; if it is 4 or less, round down. Rounding 48 to the nearest ten gives 50 because the 8 is 5 or more.

Why does the sheet keep using numbers ending in 5?

The 5 boundary is the only case with a convention rather than an obvious answer, and it is where most mistakes happen. The generator deliberately includes those, along with a mix of round-up and round-down cases.

When do children learn rounding?

Rounding to the nearest 10 usually appears in grade 2, with 100 and 1000 following in grade 3. It is the basis of estimation, which is how a child learns to notice that an answer is far too big.

Rounding Worksheets

Round to nearest 10, 100, 1000 · Grades 2–4

Rounding practice to the nearest 10, 100 or 1000 on squared paper, one digit to a square. Every page is dealt from a fixed mix rather than left to chance: numbers that round down and up, an exact 5 to decide, a roll-over such as 96 → 100 and, for hundreds and thousands, a 4 with a large tail, like 349, that feels as if it should round up but must not. A mixed setting rounds four-digit numbers to all three places on one page.

Skills: rounding, estimation, place value. Format: printable, randomized on every load.

Sheets are randomized, free to print, and carry no answer key on purpose – why Super Awesome Math works this way.

How to do it

Rounding replaces a number with the nearest multiple of 10, 100 or 1000, and the only digit that decides which way it goes is the one immediately to the right of the place you are rounding to.

Find the place you are rounding to and underline that digit. Rounding 3847 to the nearest hundred means the 8 is the digit in question.
Look at the single digit immediately to its right, and no others. Here that is the 4.
If that digit is 4 or less, the underlined digit stays as it is. If it is 5 or more, the underlined digit goes up by one.
Replace every digit to the right with zeros. 3847 to the nearest hundred is 3800; to the nearest ten it is 3850.
Watch for a digit that is already 9. Rounding 396 to the nearest ten makes the 9 roll over, giving 400 rather than 3(10)0.

Where it goes wrong

Reading the whole tail instead of one digit. 3847 to the nearest hundred is not 3900 just because 47 “feels close” – only the 4 counts.
Rounding in stages. Taking 3847 to 3850 and then to 3900 gives the wrong answer; round once, from the original number.

Frequently asked questions

What is the rule for rounding?: Look at the digit one place to the right of the one you are rounding to. If it is 5 or more, round up; if it is 4 or less, round down. Rounding 48 to the nearest ten gives 50 because the 8 is 5 or more.
Why does the sheet keep using numbers ending in 5?: The 5 boundary is the only case with a convention rather than an obvious answer, and it is where most mistakes happen. The generator deliberately includes those, along with a mix of round-up and round-down cases.
When do children learn rounding?: Rounding to the nearest 10 usually appears in grade 2, with 100 and 1000 following in grade 3. It is the basis of estimation, which is how a child learns to notice that an answer is far too big.

Settings

Place: nearest 10, 100 or 1000, or all three mixed
Columns: number of problem columns per page

Example problems

48 → 50
350 → 400
1249 → 1000
95 → 100

More Number sense

Factors & Primes – Prime factorization, GCD and LCM, prime or composite
Squares & Square Roots – Squares, roots of perfect squares, simplifying radicals