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Friday, September 27, 2013

Math Stations for Intermediate Grades Anyone?

I am begging for help from my bloggy friends.  I desperately want to start math stations but I am extremely visual and I cannot find any videos of math stations in actions in a 4th or 5th grade classroom.  I have read a few blogs on math stations and there is a ton for the primary grades who have an hour or more for math but we are partially departmentalized so I have 40 / 50 minutes tops per day.  There is a few bog posts for older students such as Tara at Fourth Grade Frolics but I need more.   I wish I knew someone who used math stations that I could go observe.  Seeing math stations in action.  Plus we just got a new math series, Go Math which is not working for me but I have to use it and I added Simple Solutions for math review because my standardized scores dropped last year due to Go Math's lack of enough review.




Here is my break down idea.

M - Math Facts Practice (iPad, computer game, flashcards......) - 10 minutes
A - Math Alone / Partner - Complete Go Math practice on other 2 pages of the lesson - 10 minutes
T - Teacher Time - Work with small group with first 2 pages of Go Math (Into lesson) - 10 minutes
H - Homework check (workbook pages & Simple Solutions lesson) & write down homework in planner - 10 minutes
S - Simple Solutions - Co-teacher goes over any questions from the night before homework and review on Thursday for Friday quiz - 10 minutes

I have 11 kids in fourth grade for math so I am thinking 3 groups of 3 - 4 students.  I do have a co-teacher so I was thinking he could monitor the "Math Alone / Partner" time to check for comprehension or reteach if they need it.  Or add 10 more minutes so he can answer Simple Solutions questions. The only big problem I see is questions from the Simple Solutions.  Many times the Simple Solutions topics do not go along with the textbook topics.  So I have to do a mini lesson to cover that new topic in Simple Solutions that has not been covered yet or they have forgotten from last year. 

My questions to my bloggy friends is will this work?  Do you do stations using your textbook series?  How do you do it all?  Should I use another 10 minutes of my science time (Leaving me 30 minutes for science.) to add another 10 minutes of time for Simple Solutions questions?  Ugh!!!!! Help please I am determined to start this next week. 

Happy Friday,

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4 comments:

  1. Wow, only 11 students and a co-teacher! It sounds like you have the perfect group to do math stations! I am trying to do math stations for the first time as well and some days it goes well and others it doesn't! I have 20 students and I'm on my own :(. The set-up that I use is similar to yours. I start out with a mini-lesson where I use an interactive math notebook and then my groups are fact practice, teacher led, independent, and a center where I have some sort of a game that goes with the days lesson. Keep me posted on how your stations go! Maybe we can share some ideas on what works with one another!
    Bethany
    FabandFunin4th!

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  2. I don't know about Simple Solutions, but I am doing the M.A.T.H. rotation on three of the days. I have a 60 minute block in my grade 4 class. I do a ten minute mini-less or introduction of activities followed by the 4 rotations - about 10 minutes each. I think what you are suggesting will work. My grade 4's absolutely love the centres. We do group problem-based learning on the other two days. I use the text books, TpT, and the internet to come up with my M and H centres. The At Your Seat I usually take out of the textbook/student work book. I am just new to this too... If you email, I could send you examples for my number sense unit. :)
    -Lisa
    Grade 4 Buzz

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  3. oh...go math, I feel your pain. It sounds like you are making the best out of a tricky situation and I think your idea will work. I would add that you need to be very clear about expectations of students during these center times and really hold kids accountable for following the expectations.

    Tara
    The Math Maniac

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  4. I am new to fifth grade this year and we also have go math. I intro the lesson whole group and students take notes in notebook. We do a little practice as time allows then homework and more practice the next day. I find the lesson and the practice in go math lack explicit connection which my students need so I usually Loki for something hands on or visual to make that explicit link. Then every Friday I do math centers to review the concepts of the week. Students rate their understandings of each lesson with red,yellow and green stickers. On Friday they choose the centers that match what they said they needed more practice in. I always have a challenge center ready for those in the green. I get my center stuff mostly from tat.

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