dear sir/madam
my son is in the fifth grade and they are doing estimate products rounding both factors, he knows how to round off a decimal, but he is having a problem doing a decimal and a whole number for example 5.96x3=? He knows the 5.96 round off to 6. but what does the 3 round off to?
thank you Ann

Hi Ann,

I like to see students doing these estimation problems, it is a really valuable skill. You say "they are doing estimate products rounding both factors" but in the problem you are working on one of the factors is already an integer so you don't need to round it. What is expected is to round 5.96 to 6 and then say

5.96 3 is approximately 6 3 = 18.

Penny