How To…How Do You?–Math Centers

I wanted to share a switch I made during my math time.

I started the year off with rotations, where I’d teach a small group of students a lesson and rotate them through until I’d taught the lesson {5 times through} to all 25 kids. I had seen so many teachers do such a wonderful job rotating their students around and getting to meet with small groups. I was determined to do the same. And I did! And it worked!

*Some days I didn’t have time to get to each group

*I felt rushed to get through all the groups and only spend 5 minutes with them on a lesson

*My kids would just die if we didn’t do math rotations

*I got tired of teaching the same lesson 5 times in the hour…honestly

*I may have also gotten a little lazy trying to come up with new centers every day

After looking to see how you other wonderful teacher/bloggers do you math time, I caught on.

THANKFULLY, I still do math centers, but it now looks totally different and I feel like it is more effective for my students and less strenuous on me.

I start with a whole group lesson {about 10-20 minutes, depending on what we are learning}. We do our usual teacher-talk/guided practice/independent practice cycle.

As I watch/help with guided practice and independent practice, I take some notes on who’s getting it and who’s not. My notes may look like this:

{I love student numbers by the way, but that’s a whole ‘nother post}.

This is an example from when we were doing our quick check practice, the students were working on double digit subtraction. I did 10 problems on whiteboards and jotted down who was getting them wrong.

After our independent practice or quick check, I start them in a center. I usually let them pick where they would like to start {as long as there are no more than 5 in a group}. If it’s a rush kind of day, I just place them in a center, no ifs ands or buts. If I care a lot that week, I pick their groups ahead of time {you know, to be more organized}.

In the centers, I like to have review concepts that students can work on for a sustain amount of time {15-20 minutes}.

I always include a center for timed-math facts {I don’t grade my students on knowing their facts, but the faster and better they are, the better they will do with later concepts like double digit addition and subtraction as well as multiplication}.

I also always include a center that focuses on what we are learning right then {we usually spend 2/3 weeks on a single concept}.

We have a variety of centers like graphing, comparing numbers, time, fact families…whatever I feel like my kiddos need review on {I make or get all my products from the amazing teachers on TpT}. Check out some of my FAV math centers at the end of this post.
Here are just some of the things we do:

Remember my awesome sticky note with my kids’ numbers on them??? While my students are independently working in the centers, I pull out 2-5 of those struggling students to work with me specifically on the skill for the center time {15-20 minutes}. They get me the WHOLE time and even though they hang their heads in shame when I pull them out, they leave with a pep in their step, knowing they were really the lucky ones 😉 The less kids in a group the better in my eyes! I get more one-on-one time with them and it works really well.

This is an example of something I do with my small group, highlighting the bigger number to remember to regroup or not. My other kiddos are just trained to star, but the more elaborate you are with it, the better it sticks with some kids.

Now back to the centers, I only do ONE center per day. This way, I don’t really have to deal with transitions around the room or having to create new centers daily. I use those 5 centers for a week and switch them out at the end of the week {some centers come back the next week if it’s loved or it will be seen after a few weeks for more practice}.

*I only have to pull one group a day

*I get to focus on 2-5 students a day who are struggle and let the rest move on {and yes, sometimes I see the same little guy in the group every day…}

*We get to practice our other math skills too {always reviewing}

*I only have to pull the kids who need the help

*I don’t get tired of teaching the same lesson, because I really only have to teach it once and then review it with a small group

*It is more meaningful work time

Here are some of my favorite centers to use during math time {click on the pictures to take you to the product}:

     

     

     

How do you work your math time? I’d love to hear more ideas of what works in your classroom.