Organize Math Workshop!
Math is my favorite! I think it's because our district realized a few years ago that our curriculum was not effective, and we've needed to make up our own lessons--which is one of my favorite things! Next year we'll be using Go Math, and I'm very nervous. On the bright side, we're getting lots of technology to use with it, so that's very exciting.
Our math block is broken into 5 key components. We have daily math review, mental math, fact fluency, whole group lesson, and small group lessons/math centers.
To keep me organized for daily math review, mental math, fact fluency, and my whole group lessons, I have math baskets. These are baskets with 3 compartments. There's one basket for each table. In the basket, I have counters, challenge task cards, flashcards, and two dominos.
To keep me organized for daily math review, mental math, fact fluency, and my whole group lessons, I have math baskets. These are baskets with 3 compartments. There's one basket for each table. In the basket, I have counters, challenge task cards, flashcards, and two dominos.
The flashcards and math task challenge cards (one of my most popular products) are to keep students engaged if they finish a little early. I use the dominoes to make partner talk smoother. The domino goes between the partners, and before partner talk, we spin a more/less spinner. This determines which partner gets to talk first.
My whole group math lesson is usually centered around problem solving. This is a real passion of mine. I wrote about it a few months ago; go read the post to find some freebies! I also have a 20 problem set of challenging problems in my store.
During small group math I have my students go to BUILD IT centers. You are probably familiar with BUILD, but if not, you can learn about it at Adventures in Teaching. I don't really implement it correctly, but I just like calling it BUILD IT because it helps separate math and reading. I added the IT (Internet/Technology). I needed smaller groups to have a computer for each group member. I have 6 tables, so it made sense to have 6 stations. If the students are at Internet/technology, I let them use the 'math websites' section of my class website. I have a crazy number of math activities that I rotate through my BUILD IT baskets. You can follow my math board on Pinterest if you are looking for some good activities. I also have some missing part dominoes in my TPT store.
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| Center storage: functional, Not very fancy! When activities are in circulation, I keep them in baskets labeled with letters B-U-I-L-D |
Thanks for stopping by!! If you missed it, I posted some math freebies a couple weeks ago. Be sure to follow me on FB for fan freebies as well!
Hop back to the linky to read more about how teachers organize math workshop!
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Hi Deb! I used Go Math for my first 3 years teaching...(2nd and 4th grade). It's really quite good as it focuses heavily on problem solving, and not just skill practice. I found that I used it as a resource rather than a scripted program if you will. In fact, my last year using it, my students didn't even use the student edition! Instead, we used interactive math notebooks entirely. The series was more of a resource for me, and then from there, I created whatever was going into the notebooks. All in all, I really liked it, and miss it (my current district has NO math adoption which means NO math resource!).
ReplyDeleteTheresa @ True Life I'm a Teacher!