Math Centers - A How-to Guide!

Last week I put all of my math center information together into one How-To pack in order to help those of you who are interested in beginning math centers as part (or all!) of your math block. It has over 90 pages worth of math center goodness! This post will give you a bit of an inside scoop into my math center setup. Enjoy!

 Before I explain each center, take a look at this overview.

I have 4 student groups. Each group has 4-7 kids depending on my class size.

My math block lasts for 1 hour and 15 minutes, so the chart matches that time frame. Tweak the time to work for you.

I teach a short mini lesson for 5-10 minutes when we first start. This may be the "We Do" pages from our math textbook or just some practice problems that I want to do with the kids. I do not keep students in whole group for a long time. I have found that most students do their best work in centers when the centers are engaging and filled with movement. Soooo, I give them what they need and send them off to do their best!

Each student goes to 4 rotations each day: Independent, Centers, Computer, and Small Group.

Independent: a workbook page or handout usually at desks

Centers/Stations: one of the 5 activities listed below usually on the carpet

Computer: i-Ready Math Online Lesson

(We have to use this program, so use whatever math program or website you prefer.)

Small Group: This is your time to teach & provide remediation!

The groups rotate through this setup using the chart above. I laminate the cards and write student names on top of the cards in permanent marker. That way, I can easily erase names (Expo on top of Sharpie works wonders!) when groups change. These cards are all available in the How-To pack.

 If you have never had students complete math centers, it can be overwhelming at first. I have created a system that works for me because it is S-I-M-P-L-E. Seriously. Simple.

Like I said, students go through 4 rotations each day: Independent, Centers, Computer, & Small Group. One of those rotations is centers. I have 5 different centers - one for each day of the week. (See the "Math Centers" chart on the math block overview page above.) Below are some close up pictures to show you a few activities that may take place in each of the centers. A full description of each center with images and links to each activity are in the Math Centers - How-To pack.

Monday

1. Review Your Skills:
What do they already know but need practice in?

 

Tuesday

2. Currently...Day 1: 

What are you teaching right now?

Wednesday

3. Fact Practice:
What facts should they practice?

Thursday

 4. Currently...Day 2:
What are you teaching right now?

Friday

5. Math Journal:
What fun journal activity will help them master the topic?

Many people see math centers as "too much prep". I'm here to tell you it is not! I have a detailed description of what you NEED to prep and what you do NOT NEED to prep each week. These ideas will help you when you are developing your own ideas.

Here's a peek at some labels that are included in the pack. The color option has a yellow background. The labels shown below are in black and white and would look wonderful if printed onto brightly colored paper. Print, cut, & laminate the labels before attaching to your center bins to ensure that they last the entire year!

I love math centers because the kids feel free to move around. They are not stuck in their seats with a workbook. Plus, what kid wouldn't want to play games during math. Heck! They don't even realize they're learning. :) What more can a teacher ask for??? 

I hope I answered some questions about implementing math centers. Be sure to check out my Math Center How-To Guide for step-by-step instructions, student grouping ideas, detailed descriptions of each center with activity links, rotation chart labels, and center bin labels!

Please let me know if you have any questions!

Five for Friday - 6/13/14

I'm linking up with Doodle Bugs Teaching for my first Five for Friday Linky Party of the summer! Yippppeeee!

This week was my first week without these precious little ones. I miss them...and yet I celebrate each morning when that 5am alarm doesn't go off! You know what I mean???

I started co-teaching a reading class at a camp for struggling readers and children who are deaf or hard of hearing. This week has been, by far, one of the best experiences I have had so far in my schooling. I am so excited to push myself in how I go about teaching reading while pushing students to conquer their specific difficulties. 

Can someone say, NEW HOUSE?!? I am so excited to finally be in our own place. We borrowed my dad's (gigantic) red car to bring load after load to our new place. I cannot explain how nice it is to be roommate free.

New house means new closet! I call it, The Devil Wears Target! I'm extremely OCD when it comes to my closet. So if you look in the picture you will see about 50 dresses color coded on the right with a bunch of sweaters hanging in front of them. On the bottom left, you will see gazillions of shirts color coded. My heels get shown off on the top shelf while my flats sit not the floor just waiting for their shoe rack. Nick gets the top left shelf...

As with my closet, the kitchen cabinets are being organized. This is one of my favorite pictures because it just makes my heart happy. A place for everything, and everything in place. It's not surprising that I was awarded the superlative "Most Organized" at our end of the year staff luncheon... LOL

Be sure to check back in at Doodle Bugs Teaching for more Five for Friday posts!

Enjoy your week!

Monday Made It! - 6/2/14

Linking up with Tara from 4th Grade Frolics for Monday Made It! I've been crazy busy with work and my masters lately, so not much has been finished...however...

All About Dogs is finished! I've started making close reading passages for my students and the LOVE them! So, I continue to make them. This pack has 10 passages and took me a long while because I mean, who knows about this many dogs?!? Anyway, I learned a lot, but sure am glad to be finished! Click here to check it out!

Be sure to link up and check out some other Monday Made It creations!

Wordless Wednesday - 5/14 - Teacher friend fun?

Linking up with Miss DeCarbo for another Wordless Wednesday!

 

This past weekend, one of my best teacher friends across the hall and I ran the Ft. Lauderdale Color Run. When we aren't swamped at work, we enjoy running together. The Color Run was more fun than I expected and MUCH more fun than running a half marathon...believe me!

What do you and your teacher friends enjoy doing together outside of school?

Be sure to check back with Christina and many more wonderful teachers here!

Wordless Wednesday - 5/7/14 - Cafeteria Reward

Linking up with Christina at Miss DeCarbo's Second Grade Sugar & Spice for another Wordless Wednesday!

The cafeteria is definitely not a place where I want to hang out. It is L-O-U-D, LOUD! Administration at my school uses red, yellow, and green cups to promote good behavior in the same way that we do in the classroom. Luckily, my kiddos are always on green when I come pick them up. The classes who are on green all week, receive ice pops the following Tuesday. Here we are chowing down in the tiny bit of Florida shade!

What does your school do to control cafeteria expectations/behavior/rewards?

Five for Friday - 5/2/14

Linking up again with Doodle Bugs Teaching for another Five for Friday post from this week!

We've been working like BIG KID readers on our rainforest close reading passages. We are hard core highlighters and text evidence-finders! These close reads have also been a hit in my TpT store which is great news to me!

I just recently started having my students lead the questioning part of small group on the second or third day of our close read. They love acting like the teacher and are even using my sayings while they are in charge...."Are you sure that's the main idea? I think it's a little too specific." Cracks me up!

This would be my lovely yoga-teaching, karate-black-belt, marathon-running mother. I managed to snap a picture when she was embarrassed and showing me her Mom's Dance. Yes, Mom's Dance. She is taking dance classes at my brother's hip hop studio. The class is all moms, and they will all be performing a Michael Jackson song at the recital in June. I don't know what else to say other than, oh.my.word! Can't wait to see that! HA.

My kiddos and I have found the best math game for counting coins. Need to give kids practice with trading coins for other coins? Want some competition? Make sure you check it out here. Instant hit!

This afternoon I got all dolled up in one of my dresses that requires dry cleaning (eeekkk!). More details to come in the future!

Enjoy the weekend!

Informational Writing - Red Eyed Tree Frog

We've been working on informational writing for the past week or so, and today I taught a mini lesson. Here is the process in images...

First, we read a big book called Red-Eyed Tree Frog. Then, we decided to write about it! I created this chart with the kiddos. As I wrote, they tried to guess what words I was about to write and chanted them out loud. They thought it was hilarious...although I'm not quite sure why... 

Gotta love 6 & 7 year olds!

I picked a few students to write example sentences on Post Its for each part of an informational writing piece: introduction, key details, and closure. They then came up and put their Post Its on the chart.

We read all of the Post Its and talked about why some were "super duper" and why others needed a tiny bit of fixing. Then we put them in order. Other volunteers came up to write those Post It sentences onto our chart paper. We used different colors to color code our paragraph into three parts. These parts matched our anchor chart.

 Believe me. Give a scented marker to a kid, and BAM instant hard work!

 And of course I needed some form of assessment at the end of the day, so my students completed an informational writing piece about the red eyed tree frog. Here is one piece of hard, hard, hard work. I'm so proud of them!

Grab this writing freebie here!

And of course, we had to make some little frogs to match! This craft was made using this free printable tree frog from Learn Create Love.

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This writing assignment is part of our unit on the rainforest. We practiced close reading using these passages while we learned about the different forest layers.

At the end of the week, my students were asked to write about the emergent layer. I explained the importance of looking back to our anchor chart to make sure that all three parts (intro, details, conclusion) of their writing were included. Two samples of students at different levels are shown below. Click here to see a preview of this rainforest unit!