What does your Math Block look like? Ours is 75 minutes long. I break it up into 3 parts – Warm Up with fluency, Whole Group Lesson, Centers, and a Debrief.
Math Warm Up
I spend the first 15 minutes of every lesson doing a fluency warm up. First, we start our lesson at the Math Wall. This is initially led by me, but it becomes student led within a few weeks. The rest of the students are sitting at the carpet, with a board and dry erase marker following along. It is a great way to work on fluency. We start with calendar, one more, one less, build numbers in a ten frame. We add and subtract with a domino, and a number bond. It is a great way to practice fluency.
After the math wall, I go into a quick Math Talk with various dot cards. They help with subitizing and fluency. These activities are great for getting brain ready for math and to practice math fluency. Ask your students how many dots they see, what is one more, one less, how many more to make five or ten. If you need ideas for your math talks, including questions, check out my Math Talks and Fluency.
Whole Group Lesson
I spend 30-45 minutes on the concept development and practice page for out Math Curriculum. Our district uses Eureka. I’m not here to debate or tell you what program is best. We just adopted Eureka for the second time, so I have taught it for 9 years. My team and I have made slides to help guide out lessons. I typically have the students on the carpet in front of the smartboard. Each of my students has a Math Tool Box next to the smartboard. In addition to what is above, I keep snap cubes in there. That way they can follow along with the concept development from the carpet while I am right there to support them. I will put kids that need extra support up front by me, or I will partner them up. I vary what I do with the practices pages. At the beginning of the year, we typically do them whole group. Depending on time, I will have the majority of the students working at their seats while I pull a small group to my table. This usually takes about 10 minutes. Occasionally, I use the practice page as a center.
Math Centers
I am a big fan of math centers. Students can work independently at centers, while I pull a small group. This is a great way to provide math intervention. I try to do 2 rotations, for about 10-12 minutes each. My rotations include – Teacher Table, Math Games and Centers, and Computers. I put the math games and centers in a basket and usually have multiple baskets for students to choose from. I use choice as a way to cut down on behaviors. You can get a bundle of my Best Selling Math Centers HERE.
At the beginning of each month, I pull out 10 math centers and put everything they need for that center into a basket. At the beginning of the month, I start will 4 baskets to show the kids how to complete the center Then, each day, I show them one more until they have seen all 10. About half of the centers I pick for the month are seasonal (Fall, Halloween, Christmas) and the other half are year round centers (like the domino centers below).
Debrief
Finally, we spend a few minutes debriefing. We talk about what we learned during the concept development. I restate our focus for the day. I also pick a few students to share what they did during centers – What game did they play? What did they work on at their computer center? Kids love to share. It reinforces what they were doing, while working on listening and speaking.
