Throwback Math Stations

I wanted to share a post I did for my sweet friend Denise at Sunny Days in Second Grade a while back..I wanted to share it with you because it includes some GREAT free resourse!!

Hey! This is Ashley from The Teacher's Treasure Chest! I am so thankful my sweet  friend Denise let me stop by! 

Through blogging, I never expected to become SUCH good friends with the other bloggers. I talk to them more than I do my "real" friends. We laugh together, cry together and talk about life together. We really care about each other. It's amazing how close we've all become. 

Now for the REAL reason you are here! I wanted to talk a little bit about Math Stations. A lot of times people think that centers are just for reading. So NOT  true. Students need to use engaging, hands on activities to truly learn mathematical concepts. Of course, you need to use paper-pencil activities as well. It's a balance, and you have to find the best way that works for you and your students. 

I typically use about 6 math stations a week. Four of the stations are directly related to the skill we are learning that week. The other two are typically reinforced skills, or previously taught skills. This gives students a chance to continue working on the skills through out the year.  One skill that you can ALWAYS use in a station, is place value. Place Value is usually one of the first topics covered in the year. I use several resources for this, but one of my favorite is my 

Place Value Work Stations! This activity gives students a chance to actually build the number. I use this station set AFTER the concept as been thoroughly taught and modeled. No matter what subject, stations can not be given to the students without previous instruction. It is so important that the student has a strong foundation before we start practicing on the skill. Here is a little preview into that station packet...

You can take a better look at it here

We also use our Place-Value-Choice-Boards-

These choice boards range in difficulty so they are great for differentiation!!

Depending on your grade level, pattern blocks can also be a great math station. I love "killing two birds with one stone", so this activity from First Grade Blue Skies is just great! She combines the pattern block activity with learning sight words! My students LOVE this. I think second graders can benefit from pattern blocks, especially when they promote higher order thinking skills. 

Another great
station that you can use throughout the year is this Time Packet.

I use binder rings  for SO many of my stations! It's a easy way to keep up with things and to make sure cards do not magically disappear...we all know that happens sometimes :) 

I also have several of Denise's activities! One of my favorites for Math Stations is Measurement Task Cards! This is another great station, that you could even store on binder rings (haha,I'm slightly obsessed!!)  Denise does a wonderful job with this product. I like it because quality measurement activities are limited and this one really promotes higher order thinking skills...and our students need that so much!!! 

I wanted to end with a list of some of my favorite FREE Math Stations! Thank you for stopping by and be sure to head over and check out my BLOG!!!


Free Math Stations:

FREE-Addition-Math-Center-

Multiplication-Facts-Game-Left-Right-Learn-

Back-to-School-Ten-Frames-Practice-Sheets-

AdditionSubtraction-Halloween-EYE-SPY-Game-

Four-FREE-math-games-

Guided Math and More Guided Math

Hey friends! We've been slammed the last few weeks, so I'm so sorry that I haven't had much time to stop by.

We've been hitting some major skills the last few weeks. From Problem and Solution , Main Idea and Author's Purpose, Text Features..AND Cause and Effect! We've been jammed packed! On top of all of that we've been working on our guided math routine. I know y'all can relate to the crazy life we call teaching! Sometimes I can't even believe we are able to teach our little ones so much! With all the workshops, meetings, and trainings, it makes prep time super precious!! I know I'm preachin' to the choir here ;)

Guided Math Centers

So let me tell you how I've adapted to the lack of planning time. I HAVE to teach with hands on centers, it just has to happen. For the first time, I'm at a school where colored ink is like liquid gold..LITERALLY! So I've had to change up my centers a bit. I'm no longer blessed with AS MUCH ink as I wanted (like in Texas). 

So I've been using quick and easy centers. These Math Stations are so easy to put together. I've made them so that I have to spend little time cutting, and I just laminate, hole punch and go! Some centers do not even have to be cut out.

I am absolutely love giving my kiddos an option of their learning centers. So these Multiplication Choice Boards are perfect for that! And they are differentiated so that you can use them for all of your students, no matter their level! 

The students complete these and record their answers in their math journals. 

I made three versions, a full page color version, a full page B&W Version and a half page version.

I also use these math centers in my guided math routine. Each basket has a centers on a previously taught skill. The skills we've been working with is Place Value, Multiplication, Rouding, Addition and Subtraction. All of these skills are in my Fall Math Center Packet for Bigger Kids

I have these work station cards in addition, subtraction AND multiplication. They are easy to assembly and the kids love how they are themed. 

You can check out all of these centers right here.

Story Elements Anchor Charts

We've also started story elements this week. I've always created and used anchor charts, but now that I'm in  4th grade, we create them together. I create one as I introduce the lesson. Once I've introduced the concept and thoroughly instructed it, the students create one in their Reading Binders. I found these binders on TpT and absolutely LOVE THEM! So the kids really have enjoyed creating their own anchor charts and making them different from mine :) It's also nice to see them reference their anchor charts during the week..that's what we make them for, right :) Now, I haven't posted any pictures of my anchor charts for one reason...and one reason only..I do not have the pretty handwriting we see all over pinterest :) This is why I do EVERYTHING on the computer!!! 

Here are a few examples of our anchor charts:

For the skill Story Elements, we read "Crickwing"! What a cute book! I will have more from that lesson in a few days :)

Till next time! 

Problem and Solution, Guided Math Centers

What a busy last few weeks! 

Let me dive on into the skills we've been working on! We finished out our Author's Purpose week and moved right on into Problem and Solution!!! Problem and Solution is always so much fun! I love it when students create their own problems and solutions... it makes me remember how simple children really are. Wouldn't ya just love it if your biggest problem was "If my XboX is going to work after school?" I know I sure would :) 

Everyday, we work in our Guided Reading Binders. Our binders are divided up into 5 parts: Guided Reading, Skills, Word Work, Reading Response and Vocabulary.  In our skills section, we record our answers for the centers we've worked on for the week. This week, we worked on Problem and Solution. We used Problem and Solution match up activity and recording the answers in our binders.  

Click the picture below for the this recording sheet FREEBIE that you can use with ANY book or passage!

We are also using my Fall-Literacy-Centers-for-Big-Kids packet. I am still able to use some of my materials from 1st and 2nd grade, but have really had to dig and create for most of my resources for 4th grade! With this packet, we are practicing Main Idea, Synonyms, Antonyms, Parts of Speech and Author's Purpose. I am using these centers in the weeks AFTER we teach a topic for spiral review. As I am teaching them, I am using only skill based centers. I like this packet because even though it's a skill they've previously learned, the fact that it's fall themed, makes them think they are practicing something new! The kids are loving the graphics and colors! 

In Math, we are gearing up for our Guided Math routine. Have you tried Guided Math yet? Or looked into it? It's basically the same plan as Guided Reading! We are doing a 30 minute mini guided math plan where we are pulling students who had trouble with the skill we are teaching that week. This is in ADDITION to our math schedule, and is first

thing in the morning. I LOVE teaching in small groups, so it's perfect for me. Here is how we set up our groups for our mini math session:

1. Meet with Teacher-Assisstant

2. Hands On Math

3. Literacy Math Activities

4. Skill Based Math Centers 

*Pull remediation students  for Meet With Teacher*

For the 4th group, we are using previously taught material and providing students a chance to review those skills. The one students who need remediation, can then be pulled from their groups to work with their teacher. 

I am creating different math read alongs so that we can use during our Math Literacy Activities, while I work on them, I am just using a few titles our library had. Here is a great link of Math Literature: http://www.bookworm4kids.com/MathAndLiterature/MathLit4-6.html

All of the skill based centers are activities that students can do independently and are skills that have been previously been taught. You cannot give them a skill based center on fractions if you haven't taught the skill.  So, this year we've worked on place value, rounding and addition and subtraction. I  am using these work station cards for rounding.

I created the same type of activities for Place Value, Addition and Subtraction. When I created these, I had my non ink people in mind! I am now in the position where ink is like liquid gold! Before, I never had to worry about ink. So I created both colorful versions and black and white. My problem is,  "Plain Jane" stuff is boring to me..so I printed it on bright paper to make it colorful! Each station is being printed on a different color! You can use these cards in so many ways. I am using each skill as one center, but you could easily mix up the skills and combine them into one center. Whatever the needs are for your classroom and what works for you!! 

You can check out this product HERE and I'm putting on sale for a little bit for ya! 

Fall Book Activities Blog Hop

Hey Friends! I got together with some of my sweet blogging friends to host a little Fall

Blog Hop!

We wanted to bring you suggestions for read alouds and activities to do for fall!!!

One of my favorite books for fall is "Paddlefoot Pumpernickel's Pumpkin" by Lucainne DeLong. 

This book is such a great story for firsties! The story is about a boy who is trying to find the biggest, best, most amazing pumpkin ever....and all he really needs is something that's a little different. I love this book because it reminds me of life sometimes! I think even as *adults* we get that mentality that we need the "biggest, best and most amazing things ever"...but do we really? Can't we just be our amazing, unique selves and have that be okay? That's the moral of this story and I LOVE expressing that to kids! It's okay to be different and be your own person.

I will  admit, I'm a tad bit sad! I had a TON of pictures of a craft I did with this story and I can't find them at all! Basically, I made a pumpkin template, and gave the kids all sorts of different supplies. The kids were allowed to decorate and make the pumpkin however they wanted..it didn't have to be any certain color. So to make up for my lack of pictures, I made this little printable for you!

Pumpkin Freebie

A few of my favorite fall read alouds:

*There Was An Old Lady Who Swallowed Some Leaves!

*Halloween Mice!

*The Berenstein Bears and the Prize Pumpkin

*Clifford's First Halloween

*Flat Stanley and The Haunted House

*Leaf Man

Hop on over to my friend's blog to check out all the other great posts! 

Speaking of Fall, I just posted my Fall-Literacy-Centers-for-Big-Kids-8-Centers! 

It's geared towards the intermediate grades, since that's the area I am currently working in!! 

Till next time :) 

Guided Reading Tips for Struggling Readers

Hey Friends!!

I am linking up with my sweet friend Jen from The Teacher's Cauldron!!!

Jen talks a lot about the tools she uses during guided reading. Since all of my experience is in Title One schools and working with struggling readers, I wanted to share a few tips!!

Student Grouping

Each and EVERY Child learns differently. So we have to teach each child the way they learn. The best  way I have found to do this is ability grouping. Our students are grouped by instructional reading levels. We have five groups and follow a Daily 5 routine. We are very fortunate to have two teachers and one aide in our room during this time. I know this is not the case for most of you! This is my first time EVER having this much support! Here is our schedule:

The Gen. Ed teacher does the guided reading program. She individually picks each book for each group each week. We do not follow a basal program. Each book is picked by level and skills that we are teaching. We use informal running records to discover each students instructional reading level. Then, we plan out our before, during and after reading plans and questions. 

The SPED Teacher (Me) does a hands on and engaging activity practicing the skill that we are working on each week. This is working out SO Well. We are able to supplement each other so well.  

We have carefully prepared our students and taught them our routine. We practiced each station each and every day. For our Work Work, our students use their "Word Study" words. We use a specifically  designed plan for word study, it's district wide. It is similar to some spelling routines. Basically, we have choice board set up in the classroom. This choice board contains nine different choices the students can use to work with their words. We use choices like rainbow writing, create a comic strip, 

Use Hands on Manipulatives to Teach Reading

Students need to be engaged in the reading process. Make it fun for them! Add scrabble tiles to your work work center! Let them "build" their words! Add sight words to your board games and on Fridays (Or any day in my classroom) let them play them! My students love playing sight word Jenga! Learning and having fun at the SAME Time! That is a WIN! That should be your goal! Teach with CENTERS, let students have a choice about what to do. Students can then take charge of their learning!! 

The picture above shows our students working with digraphs.

Here's another look at our word work  centers! 

I use both theme and skill based centers in my classroom. These two pictures show centers that are themed based with skills embedded. 

Discover Their Interests!

Most students do not want to read about the price of tea in China..I know I do not! Reluctant readers will do so much better with topics that interest them! Use Reading A-Z to find books that are topics that your students will like.

I have found that struggling readers often enjoy reading nonfiction books and mystery books. The "

I Survived Collector's Toolbox (I Survived). 

This series has been a huge hit for my son! He is certainly a  reluctant reader but this series has changed the way he looks at reading! He's interested in it so he looks forward to reading them!

Use your scholastic book points to find topics for  your hard to reach boys! 

Topics, Series and Titles for Boys:

Lego Ninjago

Lego Chima

Star Wars

Super Heros

Airplanes 

Trucks and Cars

Diary of a Wimpy Kid

Magic Tree House
Sharks
Who Was/Were

Topics, Series and Titles for Girls:

Fancy Nancy

Babysitters Club

Amelia Bedelia 

Judy Blume

Junie B. Jones
Ivy and Bean
Mallory on the Move
Lemonade War
Because of Winn Dixie

Go Back To the Basics & Differentiate your Instruction

Sometimes you just need to go back to the basics. Discover where your students are, and go back to the skill that will help them the most. Even if that means you are a 4th grade teacher, with a student on a 1st grade reading level!  Typically, we instruct our students one their highest instructional reading level. However, if you have a student who is really struggling, do not be afraid to drop their level down. This will help the student develop more confidence in their ability! If a student has confidence issues, be sure to build them up using positive reinforcement ANY chance you get!!!
If all else fails, begin to implement an intervention program

Professional Development Resources

Some of my favorite resources for guided reading are listed below. Just click on the pictures to check them out! You will not be disappointed! 

Till Next Time :)