It's Megan from First Grade Roars. Today I want to share with you how I implement math in my classroom! Three years ago our district adopted a new math program. It has many wonderful components but it was missing some key factors I felt my students needed. I began to play around with the program and decided I liked teaching it best with small group & rotations. Three years later, I have even named my new math and we are going strong! So today I will share our math: MASTER MATH!
Each letter stands for 1 important piece of our math rotation.
First up..
M-manipulatives
I love to use any manipulatives that pertain to what we are learning but sometimes just moving and matching laminated game cards is what we manipulate! I am a huge fan of Kristen Smith's Math Bins for this station! She makes wonderful cards to match and manipulate.
A: Apply Skills
Who doesn't love games! We apply what we have learned and play games. This is a great time for children to interact, learn, and work on sharing winning and losing! To get you started I have included a few free games! Make sure to download these freebies!
S: Small Group
During this time we use the curriculum given to us to teach. Teaching in small group is so effective and you get daily feedback on each child to see how they are doing. I group my students with mixed levels separating out the lower children into different groups. That allows me to provide more support to each student in every session.
(This is my student teacher teaching small group)
T: Technology
Technology is a win-win situation. Children are engaged and they are learning!! We use our desktop computers to play old games from Everyday Math! They are amazing games!!!
We have 5 iPads that we use daily with many fun Math Apps.
Chrome books are our new thing! We do X-tra Math and Splash math on these each day!
E: Enrichment
This station is OPEN and NOT one of the 5 rotations. It is used as a go to if children finish early. I love The Moffatt Girls and I buy all of her 2nd grade materials for my 1st graders! This is definitely a favorite!
R: Review
Since our program is not a spiral program we do a lot of review! This is also a favorite of my students as they love to build their confidence in math and practice old skills! One more plug for someone else, I love the product I bought from Missing Tooth Grins. I use this for my review center!
That is MASTER MATH.... This is how it works!
5-10 minute sessions
SMART Board Example of Rotations...
I made these signs and put them in Playdough Containers. They are set out for the children to see at each table!
This is my cart and how I organize my materials.
I make a binder for each chapter in our math series. I include a lesson plan for each day and the papers I used for each day. It keeps me organized and I love how easy it is to prep each year!
One last tip! I have a tray for the work that is being used and a RED tray to put finished work in at each station. Red means Finished or STOP. This has been a great housekeeping detail and saved a lot of time sorting through papers and collecting papers.
Check out what my students think of MASTER MATH!
I hope you can take away something from our math! We just love it!!!
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