New and Improved Math Block plus Math Journals

I really enjoy teaching math which is strange coming from the girl who struggled a lot with math growing up and throughout high school! Funny thing is, my high school math teacher was the one who really made me want to be a teacher! I always thought about it, but never acted upon it. Mr. Hess was the best teacher I have ever had! He would come in early and stay late just to make sure you understood what he was teaching. He brought humor and fun into what is usually a boring high school math class. I remember hearing about his very last day of work and how the school got him a limo. The limo picked him up from his house, brought him to work, took him to lunch, and then back home at the end of the day. He truly was the best! Thanks Hessman-as we all called you! I love hearing about his retirement life on Facebook! It's great to catch up with him every now and then! 

So, my love for math has really grown over the years as I have felt more comfortable with teaching the same grade for 4 years now. 

Today, I bring you my new and improved math block! 

And at the end of this post, I promise you a chance to win something:)

I teach math daily from 1:30-2:50

Here is my breakdown of my math block

From 1:30-1:40 I get in a whole group mini lesson. This is where I introduce the topic for the day. Usually with a video or a chart that I have made.

Then they move into 3 groups that I have selected. Each group gets 20 minutes at their rotation. When students come to me, we are working on activities for that day's topic. If they get it right away and it is too easy, I will work with them on something a bit more challenging on the same topic or review a different topic. 

If some students get it and some don't, I may give the ones that get it an independent practice activity and the others will stay with me for the rest of that 20 minutes and get more help. 

When they are not with me the other two rotations are math choices. There are 5 choices to choose from. They pick 2 a day. Since there are 5 days in a week, they go to each center twice a week. 

They keep track of what centers they picked with this sheet

The blue and pink circles have their class number on it. I did the two colors to match what center they are at: blue for center 1 and pink for center 2

Their math choices are:

Math Technology

I have math game links on my class website they can pick to play! Pretty straight forward

Math with Someone

This is where they play games to reinforce math skills previously taught

Math Facts

This is where they practice facts independently with Number of the Day and Let's Multiply

Math by Myself

this is their math calendar I change out weekly. The math calendar has 12 questions on it that relate to objectives I have taught already. This helps me spiral some objectives since our pacing guide doesn't do that.

They use these sheets to record their answers

Math Writing

This is where my new math journals are coming into play! I just LOVE how they turned out!

In this unit, you can get

I practiced ONE problem whole group the other day with my class, and it took 40 minutes! They really thought it was a TON of work to do one problem, but they also said it was very helpful. The one problem we picked to do was 6 steps! They were shocked! They thought math problems only had one, two or maybe three steps!

This math writing center is designed to have students WRITE out their thinking when solving a multistep problem. They have to explain each step, and at the end I had them write a summary of how they solved that problem! Here is a look at one student's example of the 6 step problem we did! 

I also had them write the problem out on the top!

This is just one of the many graphic organizers I made in this unit pack. I just liked how this one worked for me and my kids.

What I also did different in this unit was make it editable! So if you don't like this

  

You could use this and make your own math journal requirements

I wanted teachers to be able to put their own spin on this depending on how they plan on using it in the classroom. 

The 20 word problems vary with how many steps. I really tried hard to create multistep problems that required higher level thinking skills. I also included an answer key! 

With the last 10 minutes I have, I like to bring everyone back together and talk about the day in math. What did we learn, are there any questions, that kind of thing. 

Here is my updated math focus board! I love it!

 

So far so good with these new improvements! I hope it stays that way;) 

I would LOVE to giveaway my Math Journals Unit Pack. All you need to do is leave a comment below! I will select a winner TOMORROW night! And if you can't wait to see if you won, I have it up in both of my shops! 

If you have any questions about my math block, just ask! See you all tomorrow with some new fonts!