I am still trying to figure out why place value is such a challenge for students. It just is. Learning the vocabulary and the ins and outs of our number system can be difficult. That's why I try to find ways to make it more engaging and help build student understanding through a series of activities.
I have been working to put together math activities and rotations that my students will be doing to help them learn and solidify their understanding of place value. Let's dive in and I will show you what I have planned for math rotations.
Why Math Rotations
Math rotations allow me to have time to pull small groups. In my classroom, I have three grade levels, and I have a ninety minute math block. That means that I can pull each group for 30 minutes, but I need to keep the others busy with not just busy work, but meaningful activities that will push their learning forward and help them master the math standards. My students will be with me for a half-hour and then will rotate through 4 stations for 15 minutes each.
How I am Setting up my Math Rotations this Year
I watched several videos on YouTube that gave me some ideas. Last year I had just two rotations for 30 minutes each and I found that students began to get bored and cause problems, so I knew this year I needed some more activities. Here's a look at the seven rotations I will be using when I am working with one of the math groups.
1. Online Math
I am required to have students work on an online math program, provided for us, called Dream Box. Students are supposed to complete one lesson per day, or five total for the week, so this is perfect to use in one of the rotations.
2. Independent Math Work
Another rotation I use involves independent work. This includes a spiral review. I think it is important to constantly bring students back to work on previously learned skills so they do not lose traction on them.
Along with the spiral review, I am including other math activities that students can do independently such as color-by-number sheets that go along with skills we have been working on or have just completed (for reinforcement). I will also include other things such as math mysteries. I find that the spiral review may or may not take the entire 15 minute time period, so I will keep some other activities attatched to use if time allows.
3. Grow Your Math Skills
I am fortunate to have an aide during this time. I am going to have her be one of my rotations. It will be perfect because I can quickly see (at my teacher rotation) which students need reinforcement and which are ready for enrichment. I will split my students into those two groups and have each go to my aid for 15 minutes to work on growing their skills. Our math curriculum comes with reteach and enrichment sheets for each lesson.
4. Math Games
These games will target current or recently learned skills to help students practice and master their skills in that standard. For instance, just after we have learned about place value, I can put out my place value games. I do not want to put them out too early, unless it is already a review skill from a previous year.
5. Math Facts
Students need to practice math facts to solidify them. This rotation will include not only flash cards and similar activities to reinforce facts, but I like to use regular board games such as Connect Four, Chutes and Ladders, Tic Tac Toe, Candyland, and a few others. When students play these familiar games, they must first draw and solve a math fact card before continuing to move like in the regular game. Another way to play is with dice instead of cards. They can roll the two dice and, depending on the math facts that you are focusing on, add, subtract, multiply, or divide.
6. Math Around the Room
Students will take a clipboard and a recording sheet and go around the room to solve task card that are hanging up. Since I have three levels in my class, I color code the task cards with a dot so students know which of the task cards are for them. For example, my 2nd grade will solve cards with a red dot. The third grade will use cards with a yellow dot, while the 4th graders will go to the cards with green dots.
7. Read About Math
For this rotation, I scoured my own classroom library and personal books to see what math themed books I already had. I also requested some books from the public library. I decided to work on building a math library that I could use for years to come. I found several books on Amazon, it was helpful to look at the used books there, and it also saved some money. We are also very fortunate to have a Goodwill bookstore in our town, so I spent some time there on a Sunday (when children's books are also 25% off). I was able to find many math themed picture books to add to my collection.
How we Rotate in our Math Rotations
Because each student will be required to do certain rotations everyday and some are not everyday, here's how I am handling my rotations. Students will go to most rotations with just one other person (two if there's an odd number).
Every day, students will rotate to these stations:
1. Independent Math
2. Online Math
3. Grow Your Math Skills
This will leave students with one additional math rotation for the day and they will alternate between these rotations, one per day.
1. Math Games (1x per week)
2. Math Facts (1x per week)
3. Math Around the Room (1x per week)
4. Read About Math (1x per week)
On Friday, we have a shortened math block, so students will not have time to go to these last four rotations during that day.
That's a quick look at how I am setting up my math stations this year.
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If you are looking for the cards or games mentioned in this post, you can find them by clicking on the words below.
Stay tuned for part two of my Math Block Series
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