Display 350 on a 300-to-400 line as pupils settle. Take three hands-up answers, not open call-outs. Let the disagreement about the exact halfway point sit for a moment — that tension sets up the tens-digit rule in Watch and Notice. Don't resolve it yet.

Point at the tens digit each time: this is the digit that decides.

320 hugs 300, tens digit 2, below 5, rounds down to 300. Ask: units or tens deciding this?

480 nearly at the 500 end, tens digit 8, rounds up to 500.

650 lands exactly halfway. Pause, ask which hundred is it nearer, then give the agreed rule: tens digit 5 rounds up, so 700. This settles the earlier argument.

3,470 sits between 3,400 and 3,500, tens digit 7, rounds up to 3,500. Same rule inside a four-digit number; the units digit 0 never matters when rounding to hundreds.

This round is for talking it through together — pupils take turns at the board and the class agrees or corrects out loud.

• 240 — clean round-down (tens digit 4). Ask which two hundreds first: 200 and 300.
• 760 — clean round-up (tens digit 6): 700 and 800, nearer 800.
• 2,650 — the halfway case inside a bigger number; tens digit 5 rounds up to 2,700.
• 4,970 — the key one: it sits between 4,900 and 5,000, and rounding up carries into a new thousand. Ask what happens to the thousands digit? before the reveal.

Have each pupil name the two hundreds aloud before dragging.

These are the practice questions — pupils take turns at the board, check each answer, and the class confirms before moving on. Keep the board work brisk rather than over-explaining.

• 280 — tens digit 8, so it rounds up to 300. Good early check that pupils look at the tens, not the size.
• 740 — tens digit 4, rounds down to 700.
• 2,650 — halfway case, rounds up to 2,700.
• 4,970 — the roll-over: rounds to 5,000, the thousands digit changes. Ask the class to predict before the Check.