Guided Math Galore

One of my favorite times of the day is math.  I adore the concrete to abstract discovery that I see in my students year after year.  The manipulatives oh the manipulatives.  My first year as a teacher I received three large boxes and when I opened them, they were full of bright colorful math “toys”.  There’s no denying my love for school supplies, containers, and other teachery things, but when I laid eyes on those math toys.  It was done.  Head over heels.  {with a sprinkle of anxiety because I had no idea what they were for}

18 years later, those math manipulatives are still being used daily. Unconventional or seasonal items bring motivation and excitement to your lessons while making great learning tools too!  {Thank you Target dollar spot}

Another big shift occurred in recent years which has teachers feeling more pressure in an already overwhelming subject area to teach.  It’s not just math anymore, it’s guided math.  There are many components happening at once.  There’s essentials and supplemental, readiness and priority.  Then of course data and analysis.  God bless the new teachers.  It’s a lot to take on.

Through the last few years I have been working to make life easier for myself (and hopefully you too) by creating units and components that I can turn to during the school year when there’s absolutely  no more time in the day for being creative! {or for making dinner, helping with homework, grading papers, doing laundry, or basic human functioning} 

My most recent one, I just posted yesterday.  I am not sure if I have ever felt more connected to a posted unit!  I took my math lesson plans and transformed them into a teacher friendly plan book complete with games and activities.

To begin math, we gather on the rug for a warm-up!

I don’t have time to come up with a fancy starter activity for 180 days of school, do you?
I learned this method of Alliteration years ago and I love it.  I like to take it month by month rather than day by day.   Here’s our warm-up card for the first 20 lessons.

From warm up, we move into whole group time!
This is your mini-lesson.  Time for direct instruction to everyone at once.  Unfortunately I have little to no pictures of this time because I am usually the one running my mouth and knee deep in unifix cubes and dry erase boards…

I have written out lesson plans for guided math whole group in my newest unit!  Guided Math Lessons!  {It has a lot more than whole group!}

From whole group time we move into
Small Group Rotations
I have my guided math rotation system both in card form for the wall as well as projected.  We only use the wall version during training in order to refer back when we are learning it.  Our rotations are short and sweet and jam packed full of learning!

If you look at my screen behind the girls in this picture (it’s a little hard to see)  you can see that we are on round 2.  A timer is keeping track and will make a noise when it is time to clean and rotate. 

One rotation in my room that is heaven sent is our math journal rotation.  I have blogged your ear off about math journals because I adore them! 

I sell monthly sets of journal activities as well as bundled sets. 

This summer I created some math tools for our journals.  We will get into these as we learn the year’s concepts.  The first section of our math journals will be a reference section for the larger pieces to be placed.  The smaller hands on pieces will go into the little math tool tub on the cover.   The math tools cover a range of skills from K-5!

If we need our tools during independent work rotation, we can grab them to help us!  No more wandering the room for a hundred’s chart.  {Can I get an amen!}

Another beloved rotation for math is our math tub rotation.  It’s an independent math game that students play alone or with group mates.  {Did I just say group mates?}  If at all possible make your groups EVEN numbers.  You will thank yourself.  Of course having a group of three happens due to absences and class needs, so teaching teamwork and expectations is high priority for a year worth of fun and learning.

To begin the year, we explore manipulatives without an academic goal.  This is the time where we set expectations about moving in the room, noise level, math talk, cleaning up.  It’s a good week and a half to two weeks before I prep my first round of real math tubs.

To start I begin with these two math center units of mine.  They are great for August and September.

We have a technology rotation in our guided math block.  To begin the year, my favorite apps are The Subitize Tree, Teach Me First Grade, and Ten Frame Math.

Then finally my favorite rotation of all, the teacher table!!!  {cue the fireworks}
This is where we really get into the nitty gritty.  I can see each student up close and personal.  It’s a time of talking, teaching, playing, explaining, modeling, and loving math! 

 My guided math unit from above goes from whole group lessons right into differentiated small group lessons!  It’s all there for you!  The games and activities in the lesson plans are there too!

To keep everything all together in one spot.  I created a guided math binder.  This baby has all the planning, RTI, and student tracking pages I need for my small group table.

 

 

I hope this post has helped inspire you to start getting excited about teaching math this year!  If you are looking for anything you saw in this post just click the picture to see more about it on tpt.