There are many, many different approaches to teaching math and structuring an upper elementary math block. Over the years I’ve tried more strategies than I can count, and I’ve found that there is no one right way to teach math. Different concepts and activities lend themselves to different structures. The key is to be flexible, yet consistent.

Warm-Up

I begin our math block with a math warm-up. The warm-ups range from a large variety of activities. Sometimes I incorporate skills practice through a Number of the Day worksheet. Other days I implement number talks. I also love to focus on number sense during warm-up activities. The warm-up rarely takes up more than 5 minutes of our math block, and it’s a great way to wake students up and to focus their minds on math.

Mini-Lesson

Whole group mini-lessons are usually about 10 minutes long. During this time, I often review previous skills or introduce new skills and vocabulary. Some days I’ll read a book that relates to the concept we’re studying, or we might play a quick whole group game such as ‘I Have Who Has’. I love using  Math Reference Notes during my mini lessons as a guided note taking tool. The left side of the page has student friendly examples, and then I use the right side of the page for guided practice.

During the mini lesson I also set the stage for the task. It’s important to make sure students understand the task’s directions and your expectations for the final product. On more complex tasks, you may even want to model with a simplified version of the task.

Work Time

This is when students do the math through a variety of math activities, and the possibilities are endless. During this time you can meet with students in small group, have students participate in math centers, students can play partner games, or students may complete performance tasks.

A good performance task or problem based learning task requires students to problem solve and apply what they have learned. I like to have all of my students work on the same basic task, but I differentiate the task for my different ability levels. For example in the long division activity below, some students may work with smaller number, or I may differentiate the task by incorporating a little area and perimeter.

Closing

This is the time for students to share what they learned, struggled with, or would like to learn more about. They should share HOW they completed their task and allow other students to ask questions and make comments. It is important to focus on the process, rather than only if the student got the answer right (which of course is important too). I try to have questions prepared in advance for this time, because the questions asked should promote a deeper thinking and understanding of the concept. It is also important that to clear up any misunderstandings or misconceptions during this time. I love using Exit Tickets during closing as a brief formative assessment. I use the assessments to guide the following day’s mini lesson or small group.

Guided Math Groups

Guided math groups are an important component to guided math. They allow you to monitor student work, help maintain student attention, and provide support for struggling learners. I don’t try to meet with guided math groups five days a week, as it’s just not feasible for me. I like to meet with small groups two to three times a week.

It is best to keep math groups small with four to six students per group, and the number of guided math groups you have will depend on your class size. You can group your students by ability or with mixed ability groups. I most frequently group my students by ability for their guided math groups, and I have heterogenous groups with the students who are not meeting in a guided math group. I always make sure my math groups are fluid and flexible as students’ levels of understanding change.

Since my groups regularly change, I don’t create set or named groups. Almost every year I find that my groups change every week. When determining who should be in what group, I occasionally use my formative assessments and exit slips. I don’t like to use beginning of the year or even unit pretests to form the bulk of my math groups, because I’ve found that with guided math some students quickly make huge gains. Other times, students score well on the pretest don’t excel at the problem solving aspect of the concept.

Anecdotal Notes

My favorite way to determine my math groups is use observations from my mini lesson. This is by far the simplest and most effective tool for anecdotal notes for me. I’ve tried all types of different record keeping forms, but it’s important to never underestimate the power of a sticky note! You can print directly on sticky notes and use those sticky notes for your records. You can keep them together in a data folder. It’s certainly not necessary to print on the sticky note. I typically just write on the sticky note and place the sticky note on my record sheet. If you’re not totally and completely in love with sticky notes like me, you can always write directly on a form. You can download a free copy of the anecdotal note forms here.

Math Centers

On the days I meet with my guided math groups, I incorporate math work stations or math centers. On those days, my students complete two center activities. They go to their first center for 20 minutes and then their second work center for 20 minutes. I have to use a timer to keep myself on track, or otherwise I completely lose track of time.

I have my students grouped into pairs, and I ability group my students’ partners, but I keep into account personalities, behavior, etc. Ability grouping makes it easier for me to differentiate centers for my different levels of learners. I like grouping students into groups of two, because a group of two requires a great deal of accountability from both students.

I have 12 center activities at a time, because I need one center for each group of students. Typically, about 50% of my center activities tend to be on the material we are currently studying in class. The other half of the centers usually review the skills we’ve already learned during the year. My centers consist of task cards, games, and a few store bought activities. I do not include meet with the teacher as a center rotation, because I want to be able to select specific students for my guided math groups.

You can see an example of my centers board below. Once I set up my groups, I use velcro to attach the group’s name to the left of the numbers. Each day, I rotate names down the center board. For example, if on Tuesday a student went to station 1 and station 2, then the next day they would go to station 3 and station 4. Also notice that while one group is a station 1 first and 2 second, another group is at station 2 first and station 1 second. I speak for years of experience when I say that this is SO EASY to manage!

Center Activities for Teaching Guided Math

I like to use a huge mix of activities for my math centers. Students perform much better when the activities are novel and interesting.  When I have a small class of 22 or less students, I have 10 centers. If I have 23 or more students, I have 12 centers. I’ve described my typical math centers below.

Math Facts

• Xtra Math – This is a great FREE website that I used as a third grade teacher and fourth grade teacher. It tracks students’ progress on multiplication facts and is a great review tool.
• Multiplication Games – I also use one of my Weekly Multiplication Games as a math center. I love these games, because they’re low prep AND fun for students. I typically include a few options, so students can choose the game that interests them most.

Review

• Games – I incorporate one or two review games or task cards into my math centers. I like to use engaging games like the one below. I also have a set of spiral review task cards for 3rd grade and 4th grade.

• Number of the Day – I love my Fraction of the Day and Number of the Day for a review center activity. It’s a perfect spiral review, because it reviews almost every essential math concept. I have several different versions of my Fraction of the day and Number of the Day, but they all follow the same format, so students are comfortable with the format no matter which version used.

Writing About Math

• Math Journal Prompts – I love having students complete journal prompts about various math topics. With these prompts, I try to use questions that require students to think deeply about the math concept they are currently studying. I avoid word problems, because I try to have students write about their mathematical thinking and reasoning, rather than explaining how to solve a problem. I have Math Journal Prompts for third grade and Jennifer Findley has Math Journal Prompts for fifth grade. Some years I print a math journal prompt book and other years I print the prompts on labels and have students stick the label in their math notebooks.

• Constructed Response – I also like to add at least one constructed response task to my math centers. I believe most state tests have a constructed response portion to their math test, so the extra practice is certainly beneficial. More importantly, these constructed response problems allow students to apply high level thinking skills though the context of math. I have constructed response questions for third grade and fourth grade.

Seasonal

I am a sucker for fun seasonal math centers for teaching guided math. This is why October through December you’ll finding my centers on the festive side! You can see some of my seasonal activities here.

Organizing Centers

I store all of my task cards in sandwich baggies. I typically write the name of the activity on the bag, and I sometimes write how many cards are in the bag. I’ve found that this makes clean-up a little easier.

I’m pretty selective on the center or station activities that I actually have out and available to my students. There are always a handful of activities for our current topic, as well as a few review activities from different units, but I don’t like to have too much out at a time. I organize these into different tubs that I bought from Really Good Stuff. The were pricey but worth every penny. I LOVE being able to stack things neatly! Each tub is given a number, and the number correlates to which activity students complete and where they complete the activity. Numbering the tubs makes them very interchangeable, so when I want to change station activities, I don’t have to relabel anything.

Inside my station tubs is everything my students need to complete the station(s).  I occasionally like to include sleeves for recording sheets to save on paper and copies, so I have included wipes and dry erase markers in any storage tub that has a recording sheet. If the activity or game requires any manipulatives, I store those in the tub as well.

I keep all of the task cards that I’m not currently using in my classroom cabinet. I store these cards in small stackable tubs. Originally I only kept one set of task cards in each tub, but as I accumulated more and more activities, I started grouping multiple activities in a tub. For instance, I may keep all of my place value activities in one tub. This helps save me a little space, and that is definitely a benefit for me!

Whole Group Instruction

As I mentioned earlier, I do whole group math two or three days a week. I like this method for teaching guided math, because I can move forward in content at a steady pace. I begin a whole group lesson with a mini lesson that introduces a new skill or concept. Typically, I use my students’ math reference notebook and an anchor chart to introduce the skill. I then model the skill for my students. After modeling the skill, I have my students participate in guided practice on their dry erase boards.

Once I feel comfortable with students’ understanding, they use their dry erase board for independent practice. During this time, I’m careful to take notes, so I’ll remember who I need to work with during our work time. When I teach a new concept that requires conceptual understanding such as fractions and decimals, I’m careful not to teach concepts that I want my students to discover for themselves. In those cases I limit my mini lesson to only the perquisite skills necessary for that concept. After the mini lesson, I like to have students complete some type of performance task. I want my tasks to be highly conceptual and not a skills practice worksheet. I try to assign open ended questions and/or questions that require significant problem solving.

Monitor students as they work and provide support as needed. However, be careful to to help too quickly. A good workshop task should include a bit of a struggle for students. If I saw a student have difficult with any of the basic skills taught during the mini lesson, I will pull those students back to an informal small group.

The final, and not to be skipped, part of guided math is assessments. However, I realize that this has become quite the long blog post, so I’ll save that for a later day!

The post How to Structure Your Math Block appeared first on Ashleigh's Education Journey.

Since my first year teaching I’ve loved teaching through reading workshop and writing workshop, but I never saw a way to transfer that method of teaching to math. However, I wasn’t too worried about it, because my students appeared to be learning and my test scores looked good.

Fast forward three years later and my state (Georgia) has just adopted new math standards that were much more rigorous and had a much greater emphasis on conceptual understanding and multiple representations of math. Then, bring in a new district initiative for all teachers to implement math workshop and an “expert” in math workshop. At first I resisted the change, I was happy with the way things were and really didn’t believe that the workshop approach would work. However, I soon began see the light. Yes, my students were good at basic skills and what I now call naked math (computation without any context), but was I teaching problem solving, conceptual understanding, and application of skills? Did I teach my students to think, talk, and write about math? Could they show their reasoning with multiple representations? Did math math lessons have a real world application? The answer to all of the above was-no. I knew I had to make the change. Fast forward 5 more years-I’m now a huge fan of math workshop and wouldn’t want to teach any other way. I admit that it was a difficult process with a lot of trial and error for me, but I finally feel confident in this form of instruction. My math workshop follows a similar format to reading and writing workshop, with a few changes here and there.

Mini-Lesson

My mini lessons are usually about 10 minutes long, and I do a variety of activities during this time. I might review previous skills or introduce new skills and vocabulary. Some days I’ll read a picture book that relates to the concept we’re studying or we might play a quick whole group game such as ‘I Have Who Has’. I’m slowly creating and finding Smartboard lessons for this time as well (I just got one in January). I also use this time to model, model, model my expectations for routines, behavior, and quality of work.

Work Time

This is when students actually do the math through a variety of math tasks, and I personally believe that the tasks are the heart of math workshop. Good workshop tasks require students to problem solve and apply what they have learned. They also require students to think outside the box and to use multiple representations and accountable talk. I like to have all of my students work on the same basic task, but I differentiate the task for my different ability levels. For example if we are doing a place value sort, I may have the majority of my students working through the ten-thousands place, but one group may only have cards through the hundreds place, and another group may have cards through the hundred-thousands place. As I mentioned in previous posts I am going to try to incorporate work stations 2 days a week this year. I want to make the change to add a little more spice and variety to my day.

My favorite way to group students for math workshop is to group my very highest students together for their own group, which is not always a popular practice. I found that they did not relate well with my other students and made much larger gains when working with students with a similar ability, and it made it much easier to differentiate. I then have mixed ability groups for the remaining students, and I was surprised to find that new leaders emerge in those groups. During work time students can work with groups, partners, or individually, and the I monitor the class, work with small groups, or meet with individual students.

Closing

This is the time for students to share what they learned, struggled with, or would like to learn more about. They should share HOW they completed their task and allow other students to ask questions and make comments. It is important to focus on the process rather than only if the student got the answer right (which of course is important too). I have learned that I have to have some questions prepared in advance for this time, because the questions asked should promote a deeper thinking and understanding of the concept. It is also important that I clear up any misunderstandings or misconceptions during this time.

It took a while but I finally feel very comfortable with math workshop, and I actually couldn’t imagine teaching any other way! I enjoy working with other teachers to help them implement math workshop in their own classrooms, and I hope to help make the transition much easier for others. When teaching with math workshop my students are engaged and on task, because they too begin to love math. With math workshop, students are able to have meaningful conversations about math and discuss strategies with each other. In this format, teachers can provide extra support to students who need the extra help and can easily challenge those who need to be enriched. I’ve recently listed The Math Workshop Guide on my TpT store, and it includes more than 100 pages that describe and give directions for effectively implementing math workshop in an elementary classroom. This guide explains how to organize your classroom for math workshop, and how to begin math workshop each year. You’ll learn how to form flexible small groups, manage math work stations, and plan for the year. It also explains the parts of math workshop, math workshop resources, self-assessment forms, manipulative labels, and Common Core Standards checklists for math!

I’ve added lots of descriptions about math workshop. I explained each of part of math workshop and gave several different scenarios or examples of mini lessons, work time, and closing. I’ve also included a Word version for any page that you may want to edit or use as a classroom form. There are several rubrics, pacing guides, and lesson plan formats that should be very useful.

I also included LOTS of pictures! I know that sometimes I need to see an example, so I tried to add as many pictures as possible. There are several pages of book lists organized by topic that suggest literature that can be used to teach math, which is great for a mini lesson! There is an entire section devoted to math workstations, which I absolutely love!

There really is more included than I can possibly write about! Along with this product, I’ve included three versions of different math manipulative labels and a projectable math work stations board.

If you have this file and still have questions, please don’t hesitate to send me an email! I know there’s a lot to math instruction, and I want to help as much as possible! I’ve also included a link to a Facebook group you can join where other teachers using my math and reading units will be available for additional support! I’d love to hear about how you teach math and any advice you can give! I feel like there is always room for growth and improvement, which is one of the reasons I love all of my blogger friends! I would have never even considered something like work stations or many other new things without your input.

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I finally finished my new measurement unit where students measure to the nearest one-fourth inch, and it may very well be my new favorite unit.  I’ve always loved teaching measurement, but I didn’t feel like I had a good written plan for teaching it.  I always taught piece by piece, but I wanted to have everything together in one document. Now that it’s summer and I actually had time to sit and develop the unit, I’m more excited that ever about teaching linear measurement.  I’ve upgraded all of my tried and true lessons that I’ve been using for years, and I added several new activities as well.

There are six hands-on lessons where students use a ruler to measure to the nearest one-fourth inch. One of the lessons include Parrot Measurement, where students make parrots (out of paper) and measure how far the parrots can fly. Students will also go on a scavenger hunt and make large cut-outs of their body to measure.

Two of my FAVORITE lessons are the Treasure Map and Build a Pirate Ship. Every year, my students absolutely LOVE these two measurement activities!

There are also several skill building lessons where students practice reading a ruler, converting measurements, completing sorts, and more!

I also added a few lessons where students create and and read a line plot. I integrate graphing all year, but I do emphasize line plots in this unit.

No math unit would be complete without a few games, so I added a couple measurement games. My favorite is Measurement War, where students convert measurements. This skill isn’t explicitly stated in the Common Core Standards, but I’ve found that it helps students understand the subject a little better, and it gives them mental math practice!

If you’re interested, you can check the unit out in my TpT Store!

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Geometry for 3rd graders is such a fun unit to teach, because it easily lends itself to hands-on activities. In my Third Grade Geometry Unit there is a major emphasis are the properties and features of quadrilaterals.

Like most geometry for 3rd graders resources, there is a heavy emphasis on vocabulary. In the unit, I included a vocabulary booklet, with all required key terms. You can print all of the vocabulary words or just the words you want to focus on. I like having students refer to the vocabulary books on a regular basis.

After I’ve taught the basic vocabulary of symmetry, angles, and lines, I teach types of polygons. I like begin by reading Grandfather Tang’s Journey and have students experiment building different shapes with tangrams. I encourage students to embrace the struggle in this activity, because even after teaching this lesson many years, I still can’t build all of the shapes. The purpose of the lesson is in the process and the exploration, not an end result.

Another great geometry for 3rd graders lesson is this activity where students go on a Geometry Scavenger hunt. This always makes learning so much more relevant and memorable to students. You can even have students complete this digitally.

Irregular Polygons

Irregular polygons tend to confuse students, but they’re useful in making sure students truly understand the properties of polygons. In this activity students draw irregular polygons, and it forces students to think outside the box and not to rely on traditional images they have memorized. Instead, students have to focus on the attributes of each shape.

To help students further develop their geometric understanding, students make geometric observations, where they choose two shapes and list what the shapes have in common and the differences between the shapes. Once again, students are required to think about the properties of quadrilaterals, and I like that there is an element of choice in the assignment.

Students also enjoy these geometry riddles, which are always challenging! They’re fun, because students can come up with the criteria for the riddle.

Hierarchy of Quadrilaterals

The hierarchy of quadrilaterals is a complex concept for students. This graphic organizer allows students to see how shapes can have more than one name and which name is the most specific, which is essential for teaching geometry for 3rd graders.

Geometry for 3rd Graders Games

Geometry Concentration

Geometry Culminating Task

Geometry For 3rd Graders – Task Cards

Students continuously review through geometry task cards (included in the unit) and other games such as geometry riddles.

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I’ve created two different Valentine’s Day activities to help make the day fun for your students and a little easier for you!

One fun activity is the Valentine’s Math Activities and Centers Board.

Students are given a Valentines Choice Board where they can complete three activities in a tic-tac-toe pattern. Each of the activities allows students to focus on a different math skill: measurement, geometry, problem solving, etc.  I particularly enjoy the fact that there is little prep work needed. I don’t like to spend tons of time laminating and cutting out a resource  I only use once a year. This time of year my motto is to keep it simple.

Valentines Activities for Big Kids

In this activity, students use Sweetheart candy to make different geometric shapes. For this activity you need several pieces of Sweetheart candy, construction paper, and glue. To complete the activity, choose 5 of the shapes below and create the shape by gluing down the candy. Of course, you could also omit gluing down the candy and let students make the shapes and maybe take a picture of the shapes.

Valentine’s Activities For Big Kids-Memory

Another game is a heart memory game where students match written and numerical versions of three, four, and five digit numbers. Students cut out the hearts and place them face down in the middle of the group. Then, they take turns turning over two hearts at a time until they have a match. If a student finds a match, they keep the cards and go again.

Valentine’s Day Activities for Big Kids-Fractions

You have to have flowers on Valentines Day, so why not let students create some fraction flowers. In this activity, students draw a color a bouquet of flowers with given requirements. For example, three-sixth of the flowers are red. Students must understand there is a total of six flowers. The questions increase in difficulty where students must apply their understanding of equivalent fractions.

Problem Solving

I’m all about problem solving, so I was sure to include an activity that allowed students to apply different problem solving strategies. We’ve worked on these strategies all year, and you can read more about how I teach those strategies here.

Valentines Day Activities for Big Kids-Word Problems

Of course, I didn’t leave out word problems. Those are a must! I like to keep students challenged, so I have students WRITE examples of addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division word problems.

Dice and Numbers

This is a fun game for students. Students take turns rolling six dice. Both partners should use the digits rolled to create as many number sentences as possible. Use any operation (addition, subtraction, multiplication, or division). You do not have to use all 6 digits for every problem-you just have to make sure every digit in your number sentence is from one of the dice. Whoever writes the most number sentences wins.

Valentines Day Activities for Big Kids-Graphing

Here’s an activity you can do with some of your extra candy. Have students count the M&Ms and fill in the graph to represent how many of each color M&M are included in the bag. There will be more M&Ms of each color than there are spaces, so students will have to determine the best increment for the graph. Be sure to have students label all parts of the graph.

Valentines Measurement

You can also download a Valentines Measurement packet for FREE! This activity focuses on linear measurement and measurement conversions.

Valentines Village

You are going to LOVE this one. I know I do.

One Last Thing

We have some type of  federal grant so that every student gets a snack each day.  On Valentine’s Day our snack was bananas, and this was what one of my students found.  I thought that was just too cool!

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