Math Stations: Logistics

You may recall last year when I walked you through my math block in a mini-series. Well, this year I have math set up much differently than before. I use a station rotation system (like Guided Math) to deliver my instruction. Part 1: Logistics.



Math is split into two blocks this year (instead of one big chunk of time), we have added a supplemental program called Excel Math to our daily activities, and I have a TOTALLY different bunch of kids. Different bunch of kids = Different bunch of problems. :/

This year, I have math from 11:05-12:20 and 1:05-2:10. The second part of math includes of a restroom break, Excel Math, and calendar time, and also includes a computer class once a week. So, basically, all of the great instruction/important stuff needs to occur in the first block.

During this time, we do math videos, ten-frame games, or hundreds chart activities usually taken from this book:

I pull some of our ten-frame activities from this unit:

And here are some of our favorite videos to use as a warm-up:

 This is the beginning part of our core lesson, directed to all students. This lesson is meant to get the students ready to focus on the day's skill that will be taught. This can include a story, game, video, hands-on exploration, or simply just a discussion.

After the focus lesson, we begin rotations/math stations. I then continue the core lesson with small groups of students, which is much more effective than delivering the lesson whole group.

Our stations are:

 

Ahem. Excuse the mess of the buckets...... ;)

If you love the labels, grab them below for FREE!

After the focus lesson, we are ready to use this handy-dandy rotation board: 

If you can't tell, this is displayed on my Promethean board using ActivInspire. This is the EASIEST rotation board I have EVER had: 

• The students' names are at the top inside the shapes, which are my five groups (it usually doesn't say "name", hahaha. I did that to protect my students' privacy!). I have divided them into 5 similar-ability groups. I do this so that I am able to target specific needs of my students. I can meet the low ones where they are at and challenge my high ones as appropriate. Don't have a cow--the groups are fluid, so a student may move groups several times throughout the year based on his/her needs. ;)

• The numbers going down the sides represent the round number. Each group (shape) looks below the group's shape to see their rotation order. I tried to make it super easy for students to understand. :)

• The stars in each group represent the person who will be using the iPad during Math with Technology. The rest of that group will use the classroom computers. The only thing I have to change daily is the little star--I move it to the next person so everyone will have a chance to use the iPad during the week.

Rotations are like so:

As you can see, each block is 10 or 15 minutes long. The timing may be shorter/longer depending on how long/short my "Math with Teacher" group is. I typically am able to get through all stations in one day. If time becomes an issue, I combine my last two teacher groups into one and deliver the lesson to both at once (9 students is still better than the whole group!).

Our math block concludes with calendar time, followed by another fun and favorite math video to close us out (usually an up-on-your-feet video).

Stay tuned for the next post, which will explain/show the station activities and, of course, include more freebies! :)

Place Value Scoot + a freebie!

Hard to believe that another month has come and gone--and what a busy new month it has been! We actually had TWO snow days off from school!

Of course, we will have to make them up but that didn't stop me from enjoying them!

The day before our snow day break, we kicked off our numeration 50-99 unit by reviewing tens and ones and place value. We started off by modeling numbers with base-ten blocks and writing the number of tens and ones in each number. Easy peasy.

After that, we played an impromptu game of "Scoot". I gave each student a white board and instructed them to divide it into fourths. I then gave each student a number card that had a number in standard form, word form, or a model. The students represented the number in one of four ways in one of the boxes: standard form, expanded form, word form, or a model. When it was time to "scoot", the kids moved to the next desk and filled in one box on their neighbor's white board. We continued until all of the boxes were filled in.

They had SOOOOO much fun! They looooooved it! :)

I thought number representation would be a great review activity for a math station, so I whipped up this little mat and number cards to go with:

It has been a looooong time since I have posted regularly, so if you made it over here and have read this far, I feel like you deserve a little freebie! You can grab this activity in my TPT or TN store by clicking below:

Enjoy! :)

Listen to Reading

For all of you Daily 5ers out there:

How do you manage Listen to Reading?

I have 4 iPods and 1 iPad that we use for LtR. Last year's group managed it well on their own and I had to interfere very little. They were able to share the 5 devices among everyone without conflict. THIS YEAR'S GROUP--we have tears. And tears. And tears. And tears. And tantrums. Lord, have mercy, my bunch this year is very emotional. :/

SO, this is what I came up with to manage who gets access to the iPods and iPad each day to avoid the tears and tantrums about them.

#1: We do Daily 5 in 2 separate groups.

I split my class in half by ability; during round 1, group 1 works with me for phonics/spelling while group 2 does Daily 5. After 15 minutes, we switch groups. Round 2 is the same except we work on reading in small group instead of phonics/spelling.

#2: You may not have a second turn at LtR until everyone in the group has used the devices once (or at least has had the opportunity to use the devices).

This is our LtR management board:

The colored magnets near the bottom of the board have the kids' names on them, placed in their respective group. Right below the title, "Listen to Reading," you see a sign that looks like this:

This is where the students sign up to use a device. To sign up, they just move their magnet to cover one of the devices on the sign, like so:

Ideally, the magnets for each group would all be the same color. I will do that next year. This year, it was a last-minute idea so the magnets aren't the same because I had to use what I had! Initially, I actually had everyone in one big group so color wasn't a big deal until I decided to split them into 2. Oh, well. It still works. The kids do a great job of paying attention to who is in what group (mostly because they are ALWAYS all up in each other's business) so it works for us. No confusion thus far.

After Daily 5 is over, we simply move the magnets into the pail that sits between the groups of magnets. (If we do run into confusion with colors as described in the previous paragraph, I will just use two different pails to house the used magnets.) 

After majority of the magnets in a group are in the pail, we put them back on the board to sign up again. I say majority because if less than 5 students' magnets are left on the board, then there will be extra free spots for others to sign up.

If a student chooses not to do LtR at all, then he/she moves his/her name into the bucket at the beginning of round 1 so we know that he/she is choosing not to participate. This avoids the problem of waiting for someone to take a turn when he/she does not even want a turn.

So far, this has worked VERY well. The kids even take ownership and move the magnets in and out of the bucket for me! No tears over that yet. :)

#3: You must follow the rules in order to continue to use the devices.

Period. Dot. This will not be a problem to a lot of them at all, so I feel that revoking the privilege is fine for those who are deserving. As a reminder of the rules we came up with together, this mini poster is taped to the management board and to the area where the LtR books and devices are kept:

Click on the above picture if you would like a copy of this mini poster!

LtR is easily a popular choice during Daily 5, so this management system has really helped us keep potential problems under control.

What do you think? How do you manage your devices?

 

Another Week Down!

I can't believe another week has passed. This was a fast one, too!

MONDAY

Monday was the kickoff for blends month. We will be focusing on s blends, l blends, and r blends in phonics/spelling for 3 weeks. I actually went ALL out and planned an activity that involved a blender! What better way to introduce your students to blends than to make a smoothie in a blender??!

I bought this teeny tiny blender from Wal-Mart. We put a can of apple juice and half a bag of frozen chopped fruit in it. We talked about the properties of the fruit/juice before blending it and predicted what would happen once we pressed the button. After it was all blended, we discussed how the properties changed (gotta throw in some science!) and how the same ingredients were still there even though you can barely tell what it is made of. THEN, we related it to blends in words and tried our apple strawberry peach banana smoothie! They were THRILLED, to say the least! It was a great way to get us started and to help them remember why a blend is a blend.

Despite the two cups you see with smoothie still in them, the kids LOVED it!

Also on Monday, we finally talked about the math word for those "corners" on shapes. We made shapes on pieces of construction paper and used Do-a-Dots to count the vertices. What you see below is one of the construction paper pages underneath my document camersa, projected onto the Promethean Board. We used index cards and tape to label the shape. 

Then we continued to work in our shape book foldable that you can find here.

TUESDAY

We started patterns in math by using pattern blocks and macaroni to make patterns!

You can pick up this macaroni pattern freebie here!

WEDNESDAY

We FINALLY started Read to Someone after 6 weeks of Read to Self--took us that long to get it down, BUT the important part is that they got it down. They did fantastic with Read to Someone!

On Wednesday nights at church I assist in the gardening hobby bible class for 1-4th grade (I am NO gardener, by the way!!). We planted some seeds last week and, thanks to a bunch of rain last weekend, we were happy to see that they had sprouted!

We did sidewalk chalk after spending time in the garden; one little boy wrote this little reminder for us all. :)

I also shared this #midweekconfession via Instagram.

THURSDAY

Thursday brought additive patterns. Yikes. My class didn't have a clue. At all. Lots of ::face palms:: from yours truly. 

We got through it. But it was not easy. :) We will for sure continue to spiral review additive patterns.

Thursday night I almost completed level 79 of Candy Crush--I have been working on it here and there for A MONTH! A MONTH!!!! And I am STILL working on it because 2 moves to get those last two blocks of jelly was just not enough!     :O      >:(       :(

FRIDAY

Skip counting! We started out by reading this book:

This book was a GREAT introduction for skip counting!! GREAT! The animals in the book are competing for title of "King of the Jungle" and must find the fastest way to count to 10. Pick it up on Amazon here. I highly recommend it. 

This activity was the perfect lead-in for some exploration time with skip counting. We actually only had time for just the first page, but this is the investigation page we completed:

Click on the above images or here to download this freebie.

I gave each student a hundreds chart, counters, and the recording sheet (from above) and let them have at it. I loved seeing all of their little brains working. They had some GREAT ideas and thinking. Wonderful insight for me.

Counting by 1s to 48.

Skip counting by 2s to 48:

Check out her towers--she was skip counting by 2s!

On the recording sheet, they were allowed to use it however they chose. Some used it as a work mat while others used it to record the numbers they counted. That also gave me some insight as to what they knew about skip counting.

Phew. It was quite the week. And aren't you proud that I shared more than just math?! We do a billion things each day, but math just makes the most interesting pictures. ;)

What exciting things did you do this week??