Happy Little Kindergarten: Guided Math

Showing posts with label Guided Math. Show all posts

August 20, 2017

First Day Math Activities

Math games for the first few days to review simple math skills while helping students get to know their new environment. Check 'em out!

Download HERE

Math About Me: 2 versions (boy & girl)

Shape Hunt: 2 versions (Draw a Shape & Tally)

Number Hunt: 2 versions (draw the number & tally)

Download Here

March 14, 2017

Kindergarten Unicorn Math Centers: Guided Math Fun!

As most of you probably already know, my class loves unicorns! I wanted to share a fun math activity I use to teach about decomposing numbers using addition.

Let me begin by explaining that I teach this in SMALL GROUP during my guided math time. After I teach it in small group I put this in my math choice area. My students LOVE doing this activity!

Download HERE

Here what you'll need:

1. Make a rainbow abacus: 6 pony beads (in rainbow order) on a coffee straw.

2. Print recording sheet.

To Play:

1. Students push all the beads to one side leaving the purple bead closest to their thumb and the pink bead in the middle. Count all the beads. Discuss that you have 6 beads and you will be finding ways to make the number 6 using addition.

2. Move the pink bead over to the other side. Count how many beads are on each side. Color the matching addition sentence the same color as the bead you move. For example, you moves the pink bead first, so you color the top rainbow that says '1 + 5 = 6' pink.

3. Continue with each color until students have completed the rainbow.

This activity is part of my Unicorn Math Packet. You can get it

HERE!

February 27, 2017

Easy Breezy Reusable Math Centers: Guided Math Made FUN!

"I will not go to Lakeshore today... I will not...". This is the typical internal monologue I have with myself driving past the Lakeshore Learning store after work each day as I try to resist the temptation of purchasing yet another learning game or other materials. Few people truly understand the financial and personal sacrifices teachers make every day to ensure that their students have the materials they need to succeed. Even fewer understand the toll this can take on a educator. Because of this, I wanted to share some fun little activities I've made in my classroom from materials you can find in your classroom... for FREE!

I presented these games at the Atlantic City Kindergarten Convention (SDE) today and couldn't wait to share it with all of you! Enjoy!

This is one of my favorite math activities because it can be used for almost every standard. Simply glue 5 different shapes inside of a use cupcake tin, number the shapes, and throw in a pom pom. Students shake the tin and graph the shape or number the pom pom lands on. Students can also build a cube tower to represent the number they landed on. Possibilities are endless! (recording sheet pictured is in my Math Centers BUNDLE).

You can purchase cupcake tins on Amazon, or reuse one from a classroom birthday!

Fact fluency is a big part of my math program. Thats why I like to ALWAYS have hands-on activities for my students to practice this skill. In this activity, I use coffee stirrers (try Wawa or any coffee shop), tape, and Pony beads. Simply make different sets of beads and place them in a bucket with recording sheets. Students move the beads across the straw to decompose numbers (Recording sheet pictured is in my Math Centers Bundle).

Purchase straws HERE.

Purchase beads HERE.

This activity teachers numbers 1-100 and can also help familiarize students with a 100's chart. Simply decorate paper plates and have students spin the spinner twice to make numbers to 100. Students trace they number as the spin it (Recording sheet pictured is in my Math Centers Bundle).

October 5, 2016

Simple Counting Book for Kindergarten

Need a sweet & simple counting activity for your kinders? Look no further! This activity reviews numbers 1-10 and involves STICKERS! YAY! Your students will love this activity!

Download it HERE!

April 10, 2016

SHAPE It Off!

We are getting geared up for learning about 2D and 3D shapes in my classroom! Let's keep this low-prep, rigorous, and FUN! These activities are from my NO-PREP Shapes Printables and also my Common Core Math Centers Bundle. Here are a few examples from these packets!

And a few centers from my Common Core Math Centers...

Download them HERE!

March 3, 2016

Close Reading Math Word Problems

Get it HERE!

I'll admit when I was first told that my kindergarten students should be doing close reading I was a little skeptical. I just knew that my little kindergarteners could not complete these higher-order thinking tasks. I mean, they're just babies right? But hey, I gave it my best shot. I' admit we started off a little... shaky to say the least. As we reread texts throughout the week I fielded questions like, "Didn't we do this yesterday?", but we powered through. I started by setting daily objectives during my read aloud. One day we'd discuss unknown vocabulary, the next we'd discuss story structure and retelling, and so on. As we head into the second half of the year, I'm happy to say that they're doing great. It's a beautiful sound to a teacher's ears when you hear them explain to me that they're "finding evidence in the text". Winning! Now, I'm not saying that this comes easily to all of my students, but it's worth modeling for our kindergarteners.

The success I had this year with close reading inspired me to use this skill to help my 1st grade math tutoring group. Why not apply those same reading skills to help students read and solve math word problems?

I made an easy 3-step process for close reading in math. These help students learn to determine whether to add or subtract, find important details in the problem, and find the question. What makes this more fun is that it involves highlighters! Check it out!

Get it HERE!

December 12, 2015

Guided Math Activities

Get the bundle...

Or purchase individually...

Let's talk guided math.

We started implementing guided math in my school about 2 years ago. Prior to my guided math awakening I was making 4 math centers per day. I found myself stressed about not only the excruciating prep of creating so many activities each day, but I also struggled to get finished with the centers. When the idea of guided math was introduced, I greeted the change with open arms.

So here's what works for me. I implement guided math by creating 5 math centers per week. I group my students heterogeneously and they rotate to a new center each day. During this time, I pull students who struggled during the math lesson and provide a reteach lesson individually. This means that most of my math centers are completed independently by the students. I'm lucky enough to have a full-time assistant in my classroom who is able to take a math center are help others while I'm with my reteach group.

Here's how I organize my group rotations each week...

I write student names on each group. I laminated stars and write the weekly center on each star with dry-erase and attach a magnet. When I rotate groups, I simply move the stars over 1 place. This way, students know which center to go to. I organize centers in numbered buckets shown below.

See? Easy breezy!

Currently, I'm working with my students on addition and subtraction. I'd love to share some resources I've found to be useful in my guided math groups.

First, I made a Guided Math Center Bundle. You can get it HERE. This week, we used the Spin and Subtract center. Here, students spin subtraction sentences. This is great because I was actually able to use it 2 weeks in a row. Because they spin different combinations of numbers, the possibilities are endless!