My Math Block Mini-Series {Part 2}

Yesterday, I began this mini-series on my math block. (Click here in case you missed the first post.) I gave you an overview of calendar time yesterday; in today's post, I will show you the components on the calendar board.

Ahhhhh, calendar. Again, one of my favorite times of day. As my students have grown and changed, so has our calendar time. This was our calendar area back in September on the 14th day of school:

And here it was two weeks ago, on the 119th day of school:

Quite a difference!! Here is what everything on the board is for (minus the obvious):

The Calendar

I custom-made the days of the week labels on the calendar. I used to use velcro to attach the number cards and it worked just fine. However, this month we started doing something different with the pattern, so I needed some sort of clip that the number cards would easily slide into. I couldn't find any from our local teacher store, so I had to improvise!

And the BEST part is the clips match my color scheme perfectly. And I got to make another pattern. Double rainbow.

Weather

Hundreds Chart

Odd and Even/Days in School/Money/Mystery Number/Birthdays

Come back tomorrow and I will describe each component and our routine! :)

My Math Block Mini-Series {Part 1}

So I changed the "Calendar Mini-Series" I teased about to "My Math Block Mini-Series" because there is so much more about math that I want to share! Now, we all know that my favorite subject has and always will be MATH! Teaching 1st grade math has been such a great experience so far, particularly because the students aren't so defeated (drained, damaged, mislead, behind, etc.) when they come to me (as they had been in 4th). In this first part of this mini-series, I will give you a breakdown of our math block and calendar activities. In subsequent parts of this mini-series, I will go over each activity in much more detail.

Number of the Day
Our math block is from 12:40-2:10 every day. My students come back from P.E./Music at that time, so a bathroom break is a must. I have a "Number of the Day" ready to go as soon as they walk in (just a random number I pick between 1 and 100). I display the number by using base-ten blocks or ten-frame cards:

(You MUST go back to this post to get the story behind the hand on the screen!)

The kids take out their math notebooks and dry erase markers and get started as I send one table at a time to the restroom (just right outside our hall door). The NotD papers are kept in a sheet protector that we write directly on with a dry erase marker (best idea EVER). Easy erasing, saves paper, and readily accessible to students!

Here is the paper that we use for NotD (click on it to snag a copy):

I plan on moving to this step next (this is available to download as well):

The following pages are kept behind our NotD page in our notebooks. We use the following pages to help us write those number words we have trouble sounding out:

You can snag a copy by clicking on the picture of the page! The pages we use just go up to 100 so I added an extension page to 120 for my common core friends.

Anyway, after they complete the NotD, they grab a number board and practice counting writing numerals and number words until we have all gone to the bathroom and are ready to go over the number.

I purchased two sets from Really Good Stuff for really cheap! The kids love them and I love how they are an easy time filler. 

Calendar Time

One of my favorite things about 1st grade math is definitely calendar time! What an incredibly POWERFUL time to learn new math concepts, discuss patterns, reinforce learning, and explore numbers! My students are always excited to do it and always come with something new and exciting to say (seriously...I have to cut them off or our calendar time could easily last an hour). The kids are so engaged that they actually run it with very little assistance from me. The main thing I do is facilitate discussions and pick the next helper! I treat calendar time with the same importance as I would an actual math lesson because to me, it is a math lesson. As previously stated, it is such a powerful time because so many skills are covered in such a short period of time. Now, calendar time in March looks quite different than calendar time at the beginning of the year. We have added many new things, taken some things out, and extended several things that already existed. That, I will share with you later. 

NotD and bathroom break takes about 15 minutes. After that, we sing our mystery number song as we put math notebooks away and head to the carpet for calendar. The mystery number song is such a GREAT transition song for us! I saw the idea on Miss Kindergarten and adapted it for my classroom. Our song is pretty much the same, as is the process.

Remember these cute little pointers??

During Mystery Number (or right before) I very casually choose a student as my calendar helper and that student gets to pick a pointer out of the pointer bucket (highlight of their day, let me tell ya). After we finish mystery number, here is our current calendar routine:

1. Months of the Year/Days of the Week songs

2. Count to the date, recite the date (MDY)

3. Read the pattern, decide what is next

4. Count by days and/or weeks to special days and birthdays

5. Days in school tally marks, straws, and stickers/odd and even

6. Money

7. Build the hundreds chart

8. Weather

As you can see, our routine includes quite a bit. In fact, each number has at least a few subcategories! As stated at the beginning of this post, I will go over each activity in more detail in a later post.

Math Lesson

At the conclusion of calendar time, half of my class goes to stations and the other half goes to the mat with me for the day's lesson.

The station kids have a sequence of activities laid out for them so there is no question as to what to do. We switch after 30 or so minutes. We usually conclude the day's math work with Lone Star Math on the Promethean board.

Whew, long post! Well, I hope you enjoyed the post and maybe picked up an idea or two. I hope to prepare post part 2 of this series tonight so it is ready to post tomorrow! Thanks for stopping by! :)

You can also grab copies of the above pages by visiting my shops.

Number Words:

Number of the Day:

Money, Money, MONEY! Part 3 of 3 {Jam-Packed Post!}

Welcome to the final installment of my Money, Money, MONEY! series. This installment is jam-packed with munee (as the kids like to spell it)!! In case you missed missed parts 1 and 2, click below to hop on over:

Part 1

Part 2

Math Centers Pack

Let's revisit the list of questions my students came up with at the beginning of our money unit:

We spent part of one lesson answering the question, "How much money does 100 quarters make?" Well, I brought in 100 quarters from home (which was amazing enough for them!) and we investigated!

I pulled out the bag of quarters and let the student who came up with the question take charge of the counting. Before we counted, we discussed the best way to count them. We talked about how making 10s in this case would not be a good idea because that will not make counting the dollars easier (kid language). We decided that since 4 quarters make $1.00 then we should make stacks of 4.

They were excited and surprised to find out that 100 quarters makes $25.00!

Money + Classroom Management = Success

My students desks are divided into 4 groups. Up until a few weeks ago, the groups were simply called Table 1, Table 2, Table 3, and Table 4. In the middle of the money unit, I changed the group names to coins in the hopes of helping with coin recognition (and to just switch things up a bit!). Here is a poor photo of the group labels (sorry, forgot to get a close-up!):

The groups earn tally marks for whatever I feel like following directions, working quietly, getting along, keeping things neat and tidy, etc. At the end of the week, the group with the most tally marks gets to eat lunch in the classroom on the following Monday! Here is where the group points are recorded (nothing fancy):

The daily points are on the left and the total number of points are kept on the right. Some days I forget about rewarding points. Oops.

We also have a class piggy bank they have started to earn money for. Now, I REALLY wanted to start this piggy bank on a particular day and I didn't bring home poster board to make the cute little piggy, so I had to improvise! I made the piggy and bank top out of construction paper and taped it to felt. (I wanted felt because velcro sticks very nicely to it and that is important since we will be exchanging coins frequently.) The main purpose of this bank is to practice counting money and exchanging equivalent amounts. We exchange pennies for nickels, nickels for dimes, and dimes and nickels for quarters!

We set a goal of 25 cents for our first reward. The reward they decided to work for was a class reading party. Well, they earned it Thursday and we had our party on Friday, our last day before spring break!! (Worked out perfectly!!) The students brought blankets, a pillow, and books from home and spread out around the room to read. We read books from home, books we have published, library books, and books on the iPads and iPods. First we started off by watching Duck! Rabbit! on Tumblebooks.

Here they are enjoying it!:

I also made them a snack to munch on out of our leftover 100th celebration snacks (goldfish, marshmallows, and pretzels). 

After reading for about 45 minutes, we concluded the party by watching Chicken BIG on Tumblebooks.

I leave you with Mr. Moneybags McGee! I never show my kids a sample when we create things because I am big on creative expression and individual interpretations of the project so I simply told them what the parts were and had them put them together how they saw fit. I am elated with how they came out!

Check out this guy! Haha! Love the freckles!

Whew! I am finished! I'm going to go start my spring break now!! Thanks for coming over!

Stay tuned for these upcoming posts!! Hoping to post all of these sometime in the next two weeks:

• 100th Day Festivities
• Seuss Week
• Calendar Math Mini-series
• Fun With Parts of Speech

And if you haven't heard about Amanda and Stacia's 300+ Followers Giveaway over at Collaboration Cuties, you MUST head over to check it out!! They are FABULOUS bloggers with super ideas (and some of my new blog buddies!) AND the giveaway prize includes a smorgasbord of products from them and some other great bloggers. The giveaway ends in a few days, so be sure to head right over and check it out!

Odd and Even Monsters

Just had to do a quick post because you have GOT to check out our crazy, little monsters! They were wayyyyy fun!

The monsters are from my Odd and Even Numbers Activity Pack:

Click below if you would like to check it out!

Also, I have joined the world of Twitter!! I haven't tweeted much yet, but I have enjoyed finding new people to follow. You can head over to my page by clicking below.

Stay tuned for these upcoming posts!! Hoping to post all of these in the next two weeks:

• 100th Day Festivities
• Seuss Week
• Money, Money, MONEY! Part 3 of 3
• Calendar Math Mini-series
• Fun With Parts of Speech

Money, Money, MONEY! Math Centers

Well, I was going to wait to release this until I posted all of my money activities, but I am unsure when I will have enough time to finish the last post! And I need a few more student pictures...

So here it is--my money math pack:

You will find 96 pages full of coin recognition, value, and equivalence activities! PLUS, your students will get to make this super cute little guy, Moneybags McGee! Just in time for Shamrock Day (my fave)!! I just love how he turned out:

Click below to visit my shop and check out this product:

Have a super Sunday!! :)