Math Routines

The first weeks of school have come and gone and I find myself making up my own First 20 Days of Math.  I did many of the same things last year and it really did help set us up to have a successful learning environment.  I am getting to know my students as well as what they know about Math which will help me plan lessons in the next few weeks.  We started with a "What is Math?" anchor chart, I am reading counting books everyday and we are doing "how to make the numbers" poems in their math journals.  This is allowing me to set up the routines like transitioning, turn and talk, sharing, how to use math tools and my expectations about their work.  I even introduced my work rubric and they absolutely love it!  I am much more comfortable this year than I was last year and I think it's because of how we are beginning the year.  I am hoping to implement Math Workshop next week so I can begin to meet with small groups!  It just seems to have a nice flow this year. Yea me!

Math Videos

Some of my district math peeps and I had a great idea this past year! We decided to make a library of videos that demonstrate math strategies the children are learning in school.  We had a hard time explaining to parents what their children were learning since most of them were not taught with strategies.  So, we videotaped the Math Coach explaining the strategy, then a classroom guided math group implementing the  strategy.  We decided to start with 1.OA.6 since that's what we were doing in math at the time.  We only had enough school year to make videos for one strategy for that learning standard but I thought I would share it so you could see our vision.  The students loved being video taped and watching the end result as well, often critiquing their math as they watched (an unexpected, but pleasant surprise).  Here are the links to the videos.  They are unlisted so the only way to get to them is from here.  Enjoy and if you have any questions or comments I would love to hear them!  Addition Video     Subtraction Video

Math Classroom Library

I'm back! It was a crazy, hectic end of the year with TWO moves-one over spring break and one at the end of the year.  That's three moves in two years and I can't wait to settle into my new classroom across town! Whew! Now that I have been able to think and breathe a little I have started planning some of the changes I want to make for the upcoming year.  I am teaming with the BEST PARTNER EVER~she teaches ELA and I teach Math, Science and Social Studies. This year the students are switching classrooms (last year teachers switched) which means I can have a whole library for Math, Science and Social Studies.  YAY! The ELA teacher in me is so excited to set the library up! To help organize the books I made these labels (I made them for my entire library before we started teaming). Now I can actually separate my Math books into skill baskets :))))) I can't remember where I got this idea from but I thought I would share it because it is so helpful with first graders! Each skill basket will have an index card tag with the label, that the students will decorate to help them locate where books belong in the library!  Here are the pictures of the labels I have made so far.

 

 












Hope you find this helpful! I will post pictures of the matching tags once the firsties make them in September!

Math Apps Continued

After a week working with the apps I posted last week, QuickImages is quickly becoming a favorite of mine for intervention.  I love how it presents numbers 0-10 in different ways-ten frames, fingers, rekenrek and random configurations.  It does the same with numbers 11-20.  It is definitely working with the lower kids:) YAY!

AWESOME MATH APPS!

Today I went searching... It was long overdue but I finally did it! I went looking for some awesome apps that will help me teach the Common Core Standards.  Well, I found a bunch!  Here is the list: Check them out!

10 Frame Fill

Find Sums

Friends of Ten

Subitising2

FF Early Add 

Quick Images

Marble Math Jr

Ten Frame

Number Rack

FlashToPass

Thanks to my twitter friend Matt Gomez for the recommendations on his blog: mattbgomez.com

As always...Happy Teaching!
Feel free to comment with your favorite apps! Always looking for great resources:))

Seasons

Another fun song from Have Fun Teaching that I put pictures to!  It is one of the kids favorite links on our classroom blog. Your class will LOVE it! Enjoy!

Weather Song!!

My kids love to learn through music so I was searching YouTube for weather and seasons songs when I found Have Fun Teaching!  Their songs are AWESOME so I took their weather song and put pictures to it!  I hope your class enjoys it!  My class LOVES it!! I put a link on my class blog so they can enjoy it and LEARN at night and over the weekends too.  This is what I would consider a "Teacher Score"!  Enjoy:)))