Guided Math Made Easy

Hey friends! We just finished week 5! Can't believe it's already half way through the first grading period! My life has been so full of meetings, planning, meetings, trainings, meetings..did I say MEETINGS?!? I am certainly glad the weekend is here :)

This week, I kicked off formal data collection in guided math. 

I used my Guided Math Binder to document all of my assessments and observations. This way I could easily jot my notes down and form my groups based on the data. I'm  not the most organized person so this is SO helpful for me.  I just separated my data by skill or SOL (our standards in VA). It was so helpful come conference time to when I was asked directly how a student was doing on a specific skill. I using this resource to help me analyze my data so that I can pinpoint exactly where my students weaknesses are. 

Implementing Guided Math in the Beginning of the Year

We started our guided math routine off very simple. I introduced our guided math routing with Reagan's Guided Math Posters. We discussed the word stamina and how we were building up to be bale to work for longer periods of time. I have four tables in my classroom. Each table got a hands on activity to complete for just 8 minutes. Each activity was introduced to the entire group.  I used very simple activities. I wanted my students to get the hang on working in a group with activities that they could pretty much do on their own. We started off with  math tubs filled with Skip Counting Puzzles, Place Value Work Mats, Math Interactive Notebook, and Math Literacy. These activities are easy to prepare and simple for the kiddos to pick up to get the hang of working in groups.  I allowed the kids to work in 8 minute rotations, teaching them that when the timer goes off, we began to clean up.

This worked SO well for my kiddos. They enjoyed fun, engaging activities that were not so much prep work. It was a teacher lifesaver :) Each week, we've built up our time and are now completing 13 minute rotations. I've begun to pull my students that need a little extra help with the skill we are working on. The great thing about guided math, is that we will continue working on previously taught skills for the year. 

 It's very important to practice routines while using meaningful activities. Students should be expected to do real life learning while understanding and developing the sense of the classroom. 

Our first SOL or objective was counting to  50. My students were able to demonstrate how to count to 50. 

We used these interactive notebook pages to practice counting, place value and skip counting. 

You can check out this notebook right here! AND It's on SALE :) 

Happy Teaching! 

More Back To School

Hey friends! I'm in full classroom setup swing! I  have only had three days in my room and feel progress and overwhelmed at the same time. My sweet colleague sent me a ton of books that were labeled and ready to go! So I've spent some time merging my existing library books into the system she created. It's a sticker system where each book has a sticker that matches the book basket. I am so excited about it and will post pictures and more about it once I'm all finished.

I haven't even glued the labels yet. You can check out the labels right here.

Classroom Library Labels

Something else I'm super excited about is the implementation of interactive notebooks. Here's a look at how we've implemented them in the past. 

I have two interactive notebooks I use.  I typically cut out the header pieces for the students at the beginning of the year, but I want them to cut and sort the words on their own. 

The first notebook includes skills over 20 activities working on sight words, blends, rhyming words, long and short vowel words and much more :)


Interactive notebooks give students a chance to practice on those important reading strategies while being engaged at the same time. Student engagement is the key to students successfully learning a concept.

Interactive Notebook

The kiddos LOVED the blend activity. You can differentiate it so easily by having the students write sentences under the flap or they could draw another picture. 

This is the story element activity. 

This is a noun and verb word sort. 

This is my mess I need to get finished up :) Still so much to do and so little time!!! This is me pretending not to freak out :)