Reorganizing for Math Workstations

During the past two days at school I have finished reorganizing my math closet and have been working on organizing my science closet. Here's my math closet and math area before reorganization.

As you can see, my closet was already mostly organized. There were a few concepts I did not have tubs for and others where the tubs were not the right size.

This is my math corner where my math manipulatives were stored last year. There are also math books and math games. It is a bit of a mess and I look forward to only having out next year what the kids need to do the stations they are working with.

This table is located in my math corner. It doubled as a third seating area for my students this last year. Next year I will have quite a bit less kids in my class and won't need to use this table in the same way. I plan on setting up my computers on top. The drawers underneath were used to store other manipulatives as well as math activities students worked on during their independent math rotation.

Next year I plan on using the drawers as my stations. Kids can remove the drawers and take them to other areas of the classroom.

I bought the clipart from Scrappin' Doodles. Click on the picture below for the link to this clipart at Scrappin' Doodles.

I also reorganized my closet. All I need now are a few more labels.

I'm not sure at this point if or how I'll use the bookshelf in the math corner. I may use it to attract kids to the math area similarly to Debbie Diller shows on page 35 of her book. Or I may move it to a different area of the room and use it for something else. Only time will tell.

Math Work Stations by Debbie Diller

I am really excited for all the learning I'm going to be doing this summer! I'm participating in two book group discussions; on math work stations and Sharon Taberski's new book Comprehension from the Ground Up. I'll be attending several PD workshops offered by the special school district of St. Louis. I might also have the opportunity to attend Sharon Taberski's workshop on July 6th. I just heard about this last opportunity this morning and I'm hoping it works out.

I've never done one of these linky party things but I'm really excited about this book and how I can teach math more like Daily 5. I think by blogging my ideas it will give me a chance to really think through what I want to do and plan to do and hopefully by entering my voice into the discussion that will not only help me but also maybe help a few others. I've been teaching math within a workshop model for the past two years but my work stations have been more like centers than stations and not quite organized enough.

To follow the discussion of chapters 1 & 2 link over to Mrs. Wills Kindergarten by clicking on the button below.


Here's my thoughts ...

In figure 1.2 on p16 Debbie shares the differences between work stations and centers.
1) Materials are used by the teacher and students during instruction first. ... I do this most of the time. But because I teach three different math groups at different levels of instruction and often times on completely different concepts because they are ready to move on at different rates, there are often items in the math area for independent use that not all of my kids know how to use. I like the idea of differentiating materials within the station area. My class is relatively small compared to most classes (topping out any year at 18 - next year my class size right now is around 10) so I might be able to have some stations designated for each group and a few to share with differentiation within the station box.
2) Stations do not change weekly. I already do this. Although sometimes I keep too much at the station and just add more. I've seen this past year with some kids that when having too many choices, kids are overwhelmed and can't make a choice at all.
3) All students go to workstations daily. For the past two years what I've done is have a rotation with three different groups of students: the red, the blue, and the orange. Each group would take a turn with me, doing independent work, and doing practice work which was part of or the whole worksheet that went along with the lesson I taught. I'm a little hesitant to go completely away from worksheets. I realize that hands on learning is integral to understanding and retaining what each child learns but I wrestle with taking away worksheets completely and kids not knowing how to answer questions through that media when needed.
4) Materials are differentiated for students. This has been a struggle in the past - I look forward to maybe doing the different boxes for different groups idea and differentiating by colored sticker within shared boxes.
5) Teacher observes individuals at work or meets with small math groups. Done.

For the past two years I have kept my math stations on a book shelf and under a table at the back of my room. Hopefully a video I created at the beginning of this past school year will upload so you can see what it looked like before it began morphing this school year. I have a small space in my room and its actually a large room that was once two rooms so it still has a divider in the middle and is awkward in creating little spaces because it is so narrow and does not have so much wall space. I hope to change up a little how I organize my math work station area for next year. I will probably use this same book shelf but put the stations in numbered containers rather than just putting all the manipulatives out and expecting the students to remember what to do with them. Because I have less students next year than I had this year I hope to move my computers to the tall table and have them available more often next year with math and word games.

There is a closet right next to this space in which I have organized all my math materials. I'm naturally a very organized person and like to keep things that way. So I have all my materials already sorted by topic and in bins that are easily stackable. My problem comes when things don't fit in the bins and I have to put them next to the bin, then I usually forget that I have them.

I don't have any pictures of my math area right now and it's not a very good time to take them since I am in the process of cleaning up and putting away everything in my room. Maybe I'll take some and upload later.

Tower Stackers

I started my math rotations today by stressing the importance of students doing the math work when playing games and not just playing twister, darts, or stacking cups to make towers. As a result I received many many papers in my turn in tray today with all kinds of facts written down. Yea for kids listening and following directions!!! I also spied one of my girls laying out all the cups across the table and searching for facts that she already knows as she began this tower. When it started becoming trickier, other students came along side her and practiced the harder facts themselves. They ended independent math time with this long tower of completed addition facts. And they were so proud they wanted to be included in the picture. One student told me that its like the Great Wall of China. Wow check out that schema!

Math Fun

Lori commented on my blog about math olympics wondering if we do math olympics every day and what exactly it entails. 

I have my math block right after lunch and it lasts about an hour.  We have a routine we follow during the first 10 minutes.  When the kids come in from recess they do their "calendar job" right away.  Each kid has a job on our calendar wall.  These jobs rotate every day. 

Here are two jobs: the Today is, tomorrow will be, yesterday was chart and the calendar which we add to with patterned numbers.
  More jobs: calendar application questions, problem of the day, writing the date, day tallies, and time
  Adding and counting straws, temperature, weather graphing, counting chart, money, and graphing question of the day.

The students all do their jobs and then head back to their seats before the counting chart person and the graphing question of the day person lead the class in skip counting and a graphing excersize. 

After calendar, every day we have math olympics.  The kids make their way through addition and subtraction facts.  I use Easy Timed Math Drills by REMEDIA Publications.  The pictures below are linked to a TpT site where they can be bought.
     

I give students 3 minutes to get as many facts as they can.  If they get 34 out of the 36 problems they move forward the following day.  From +0 to +1 to +2 all the way to +9 and then it begins to mix the problems together.  +1 and +2, +2 and +3 and so on to +8 and +9.  Then mixed up even more +1, 2, and 3.  and following and then finally +0-9.  When they have moved through all of these facts.  They are awarded a medal.  I print out medals in black and white and give the child a medal to decorate with paint and glitter.  I then use red, white, and blue ribbon to finish the medal.  The kids are so proud of themselves when they finally get the medal.  They have to work really hard to get there.



Here's my kids today working hard at math olympics!





After math olympics students rotate through independent math work, practice sheets, and time with me to learn the new lesson.

Here's a couple of pictures of my kids today experimenting with cups, pints, and quarts.