Throwback Thursday, Bloglovin' and Ashley's Giveaway
First on the list is Throwback Thursday! I love the idea of this linky. Cara Carroll from The First Grade Parade {love her…by the way, head over and wish her a Happy Anniversary}, created this linky to revisit some old posts. I love this idea. I’m enjoying reading some posts from blogs that I follow that I might have missed during the busy school year (or even from the year before)…
Here’s my post from 4/25/12…over a year ago….but it explains how I run Math Workshop. Now, I have tweaked this program in my room quite a bit since this post, but the structure is pretty much the same. My classroom is ever evolving, isn’t yours? So, here you go….
When I saw that my idol, Laura Candler, was having a link up on Math Stations I was so very excited.
As some of you may know, I’ve completely changed the way I teach math this year. For years (a decade or more…shhhh don’t tell), I’ve been teaching math primarily whole group with a few small groups as needed.
This year, however, I started Math Rotations. I will NEVER go back. Here’s how I make it work for me:
First, I found the Math Rotations Board from Clutter-Free Classroom. It uses the acronym MATH for organizing how your “rotate” from one activity to the next. {You know how I love those acronyms.}
Here’s a picture of my board (purchased from Clutter-Free Classroom):
This is where I have my students work on Math 4 Today. This is a daily
drill that is spiraled curriculum reviewing all fourth grade skills.
There are only 4 questions to complete, so when they are finished with
that, they start their At Your Seat Work.
This is where my students complete the Independent Practice from the
math book. However, this is the work from the previous day’s small
group work. So, for example in the picture above, my students were
completing lesson 16-5. I had taught 16-5 the day BEFORE in the
Teacher’s Choice Station.
This is my small group instruction time. My students are grouped into 4
different groups based on their ability (mainly their MAP testing data
with a little teacher judgement thrown in there, too). Again, I teach
the lesson that the students will be completing the NEXT day during
their “At Your Seat” station. So, in the picture above, I was teaching
16-6. Make sense?
This is what most think of as real “Stations” or “Centers”. I use this
time to have my students work with a variety of materials. As you can
see on the board above, I am lucky enough to have 3 iPods. One is from
the school, one is my son’s old iPod and the last one is my iPhone-Yes, I
let my students use it for stations-gasp! I also have math sharks (electronic flashcards), Hot Dots and other “hands-on” materials.
As you can see in the picture above, each group (Group 1, Group 2, Group 3, Group 4) all rotate through all stations during each math lesson. For example, using the picture above, Group 1 will go to stations in this order:
1st-Math Facts
2-Teacher’s Choice
3-At Your Seat
4-Hands On
This has worked for me. Now, I will tell you it took about a month of tweaking to make it work the way it does now…but I stuck with it and am so glad that I did!
For my most recent hands-on activity, my students created this foldable to help them with probability:
Click on the picture to download it from Google Docs.
If you haven’t linked up yet, head on over to Corkboard Connections by clicking on her linky button below:
There you have it! I hope that you can use some of the ideas from this old post.
Next up, have you switched to Bloglovin’ yet? Click on this link {here} to go to yesterday’s post about how to follow me there and possibly win 2 items from my TpT store!
And finally, have you heard about Ashley’s Awesome Giveaway (yep, I just titled the event). If you haven’t…you must check this out. Today, I’m a part of the upper grade math giveaway. Click on the image below to head over to The School Supply Addict blog and enter to win! She has a ton of freebies and items up for grabs. You don’t want to miss out 🙂
So I also downloaded this from CFC last summer and tried to implement it this year. I did some version of it throughout the year, but the one thing I struggled with was whether or not to have a whole group instruction time.So my questions are:1. How long of a math block do you have?2. Do you do whole group instruction as well? If so how long in your math block?Thanks in advance! I love reading your blog! It's been a lifesaver with me moving to 4th this year.Courtney TEXT
Sorry html went wonky. That would be 4th Grade Sprinkles.4thGradeSprinkles
This other post might help answer those questions: http://funin4b.blogspot.com/2012/04/more-on-math-stations.htmlThanks for the question and thanks for following me. I'm so glad that I've helped you with your move! If you still have more questions, feel free to email me :)Elizabeth
I'm really wanting to try math rotations this year and your explanation has helped a ton! Thanks so much :)JessicaTeach on a Limb
You are very welcome!
So I also downloaded this from CFC last summer and tried to implement it this year. I did some version of it throughout the year, but the one thing I struggled with was whether or not to have a whole group instruction time.So my questions are:1. How long of a math block do you have?2. Do you do whole group instruction as well? If so how long in your math block?Thanks in advance! I love reading your blog! It's been a lifesaver with me moving to 4th this year.Courtney TEXT
Sorry html went wonky. That would be 4th Grade Sprinkles.4thGradeSprinkles
This other post might help answer those questions: http://funin4b.blogspot.com/2012/04/more-on-math-stations.htmlThanks for the question and thanks for following me. I'm so glad that I've helped you with your move! If you still have more questions, feel free to email me :)Elizabeth
I'm really wanting to try math rotations this year and your explanation has helped a ton! Thanks so much :)JessicaTeach on a Limb
You are very welcome!