Rounding to the Nearest 25 Cents
Grade 4 students learn to round money to the nearest 25 cents (nearest quarter) in Saxon Math Intermediate 4. The four quarter marks in any dollar are 0, 25, 50, and 75 cents. To round 4.89 dollars, compare the cents (89) to the nearby marks of 75 and 100 cents — the difference to 100 is 11 cents while the difference to 75 is 14 cents, so 4.89 rounds up to 5.00 dollars. A bottle of juice at 1.68 dollars rounds to 1.75 because 68 cents is only 7 cents from 75. This Chapter 2 skill builds real-world estimation with money.
Key Concepts
Property To round to the nearest $25$ cents, find the closest multiple of a quarter ($0.00, 0.25, 0.50, 0.75$).
Examples To round $4.77$ dollars, the closest amount you can make with quarters is $4.75$ dollars. For $8.48$ dollars, the nearest quarter based amount is $8.50$ dollars.
Explanation Imagine your pocket only contains quarters! What's the closest amount you can make? This trick is awesome for quickly figuring out prices that are almost at a quarter mark, which simplifies adding things up in your head.
Common Questions
What does rounding to the nearest 25 cents mean?
It means finding the nearest multiple of a quarter: 0 cents, 25 cents, 50 cents, or 75 cents. A price like 1.68 dollars would round to 1.75 because 68 cents is closest to the 75-cent mark.
How do you round 4.89 dollars to the nearest 25 cents?
Identify the nearby quarter marks: 75 cents and 100 cents (1 dollar). Distance from 89 to 75 is 14 cents; distance from 89 to 100 is 11 cents. Since 11 is smaller, round up to 5.00 dollars.
How do you round 1.68 dollars to the nearest quarter?
Compare 68 cents to 50 cents and 75 cents. Distance to 50 is 18 cents; distance to 75 is 7 cents. Since 7 is smaller, round up to 1.75 dollars.
What is a common mistake when rounding to the nearest quarter?
Only looking at the last digit instead of comparing the full cents value to the nearest quarter marks. For 4.89, looking only at the 9 might suggest rounding to 4.90, which is wrong — always compare the entire cents amount to 0, 25, 50, and 75.
What Saxon Math chapter covers rounding to the nearest 25 cents?
Rounding to the nearest 25 cents is covered in Saxon Math Intermediate 4, Chapter 2 (Lessons 11-20), as a practical money estimation skill.