Organizing Math Stations

Hey there, I am linking up with one of my favorite blogs of all times, The Primary Peach, to bring you a Sunday organizational tip.

If you're like me and have finally caught up with the digital age you have all of your files on your computer now. Our school lets us directly connect to the office printer so that we can send the stuff that we need printed off multiple times right to the 'big' printer and not have to waste the ink on our classroom printers. This is so helpful when you forget are planning for the week. I can send it immediately to the printer and just walk over and pick it up. So quick!

To get back to my point, I began to realize that I have not opened my filing cabinet files for at least two years. Everything I use is on the shared drive whenever I need it.

Another problem I had was trying to keep my math stations organized. They were everywhere. I tried to keep them in a fun fabric drawer like thing I found at Walmart, but they always got mixed up and I could never find what I was looking for when it came time to switch out the stations. I needed a way to keep them in order by subject.

So guess what I did? I went through my entire Language Arts and Math drawers and threw everything away. Yep, I did it! It was so freeing. I had things from when I first started teaching first grade in there from 1995. It was time. Total purge.

Now I had a space in the room where I could coordinate math stations by strand. I put each station into a folder inside of a gallon Ziploc bag so I could grab it when I need it. If you looked inside you'd see all of the Place Value games together, all the Multiplication stations in one place, and all of the Geometry ideas close by.

I am fully advocating the need to go through you filing cabinet and purging stuff you haven't even set eyes on in the past year or so. Then you can use that empty storage unit however you want. Believe me, it's a wonderful feeling!

P.S. I left my Social studies and Science drawers alone because some of that stuff is hard to find on line.

Wednesday Writing - Peer Editing form

We have been plugging along with our first piece of the year. It seems to be taking a lot longer than usual because we stop every now and then to do an opinion piece, or response to lit, or persuasive piece, or something else to satisfy the requirement to hit all of the genres in one nine week. Not sure if I like this idea, but I digress.

We have made it to the Peer Editing Stage where the students have revised and edited with colored pencils to show their changes. Now they are going to share their story with a partner. I have them swap books so that they can see their writing in a real audience's hands. Then they read each piece aloud so the author can hear their words. This will help them understand that their handwriting and spelling does really make a huge difference. If they know someone else will be looking at, they will try a little harder, right?

Since they only have ten minutes tops to read each other their pieces, I created this sheet to keep them on task. You can get it here.

They can take the sheet back to their seats once the time  is up to finish filling in their thoughts. Once complete, they return it to their partner to glue close to their story's rough draft in their Writer's Notebook. Each can make further changes at this time based on suggestions or questions their Peer Editor had. Then they are ready for the Final Draft.

Tuesday Tried It - Group Caddies

I like things neat. I do. I confess.

Over the summer I attended a Math Summer Camp staff development. The teacher had these great color coordinated caddies that he used for each group. I thought it was a perfect way to make sure that all equipment was put back in its right place and I wouldn't be wandering around trying to figure out which group didn't have enough white boards.

I scoured the Dollar Store for four sets of color coordinated items. I was able to secure a blue, green, and red set of caddies, trash cans, station bins, and book baskets. I had to cobble together the fourth set of purple and black items to make it all work.

Then a colleague who had gone to the Math Camp with me offered to let me use her spray paint for the backs of my white boards. Of course I had to go out and buy a yard of fabric to cover the center areas of each group that matched their colors. It was a bit of a stretch to find space themed fabric in those specific colors, but I made it work. I was done!

The one thing I didn't count on was the children actually using the materials. Man! They just grabbed and snatched and threw things back in willy-nilly. It was looking so beautiful before they arrived. After four weeks of this I had to go through and fix them all up pretty again. It was driving me nuts.

Oh, and I am printing this picture out and gluing it to a stick that will poke up out of the caddies for them to see. Then I just tell them to make their areas look just like the picture. This will work, right?

Wednesday Writing - Writer's Notebooks

First day of school. After a night of tossing and turning I wake up with butterflies in my stomach. Yes! Even after 23 years, I still get them. I enter my classroom and flick on the lights. It is quiet now but the room has a certain tension this morning. An air of expectation. The pencils are all sharpened, the chairs are all pushed in, and the floor is clean. I take a deep breath and glance at the clock. It's 7:15. I have another 20 minutes before the bell will ring and those eager little bodies will bounce down the bus steps and stream in the front doors. 20 minutes to make sure I have everything in place and go through my mantra, "I may be as prepared as possible, but never prepared enough for reality. I must trust in my ability to handle all things as they come. Today I will make a difference. Today I am a teacher."

I am ready.

We will be setting up our Writer's notebooks this morning. Another composition book to put in their desk. I want thing one to be special to them. So I'll let them decorate to their heart's content and then go home tonight with homework to gather more things to decorate it with. Then tomorrow I will mod podge everyone's covers so they stay perfect. I got the idea from one of the bloggers I follow and I am truly sad that I can't remember who the genius was. If I figure it out, I will definitely update here.

But for today, we are going to fold down the first two pages of our notebook to act as the Table of Contents. In the past I have held off having them write things here. I would save it as a busy work task during the long week before holiday break. But they do it only halfway, or not at all. So I am rethinking this part. I am going to have them get into the routine of updating their table of contents every few days. Next, we'll separate our notebook into four sections. I am going to have them glue ribbons into each section so we can find them throughout the year. Our county is asking that we allow them to write in all four genres this year instead of just concentrating on two. They believe the more exposure they get, the better retention.  And later the more skilled writers we'll produce. Hmm. There will be a ribbon for Personal Experience (Narrative), Information, Persuasive, and Fantasy. We'll really have to think about which genre to put our pieces in. If we are doing some poetry, are you writing about the weather? Then should it go it personal experience (A Day in the Rain), Information (Cloudless Skies), or Fantasy (The Rainmaker)? Fun, right?

This year I am having them put all of their planning and drafting into this notebook. Once they get ready to move it to the final draft, I'll have them use a legal pad. This move into a different paper is going to make them understand the difference between drafting and final copy. We'll talk about the importance of best handwriting and pay attention to correct punctuation. Always a struggle for us. Maybe the move to a different format will turn their brains into a higher gear. I can hope, right?

Monday Mentor - Setting up Notebook

Last week I showed you how I set up the student binders. Another thing we do at the beginning of the year is set up our Math Notebooks. Like a lot of you, we use the marbled composition notebooks for this purpose. The school provides us one for each student, so I can save a little money there.

The first thing I have them do is decorate the cover with ways they use numbers (photos, stickers, magazine ads, etc). This year I am going to follow the advice of Mrs. Hawk's Nest by hot gluing a ribbon into the back of their books so they can mark their place. So often they just flip to any old page and start working. I am WAY too OCD for that. I want the work to move chronologically through the book, so if I want to refer to something we've done in the past, I have them just open to that date.

I break the composition book into two sections. If you close the book and hold it up so you can see the top of all the pages, you'll notice a definite hole that marks the middle of the book. I have the students open to this page. We dog-ear (fold down) that page and make a chapter header for our 'Calendar' section. This is where they will complete all of their calendar activities during our Math block.

The front section is used for problem solving. I have them paste in a copy of the C.U.B.E.S. method that I found over at Elizabeth's site Fun in Room 4B. You can go to that link and grab your's for FREE!

I then print out a math exemplar related to the topic of study that week and have them go through the C.U.B.E.S. method to help them organize their thinking. You can actually purchase these exemplars by the set in my TpT store.

Math Exemplars Set 01

Math Exemplars Set 02 

Just in case you were curious. 

It helps me to keep all of their work in one place for CRCT review future reference. Plus they can see the progression of their knowledge throughout the year. 

We have a section set aside in our binders for our interactive notes. They can flip through that to help them support their explanations when writing about their solutions. 

Leave me a comment below and let me know how you use your math notebooks!

Mentor Mondays - School Binders

This will mark the turning point for my Mentor Monday posts. I am switching over entirely into school mode since I have to report for duty at 7:00 A.M. this Wednesday. To help you get ready as well, I am switching to more school related posts instead of blog set up.

For the first topic, I wanted to show you my school binders that my students will use to keep everything in this year. I tried this out for the first time last year and I really liked it. I went with a 1" binder for all the students and it went okay. The only part I didn't like was when I had to pull out the 'chapters' from the Social Studies and Science sections when we were done. Otherwise there wouldn't be any room to add more paper.

This year I am going with the 2" Front View Binder.

They'll put their Homework Agenda notebooks in the front followed by four tab dividers. One for Math, Language Arts, Science. and Social Studies. I provide them with the dividers and the little tabs to write the subjects on. This is a good introduction to how well the class can follow directions as they write the titles and insert the tabs.

I usually give them an Accelerated Reading Log to keep in the front of their Language Arts section. They record the books they read and how they did on their tests on the computer.

You can grab the 2 page PDF file here so that you can print them double sided from here

I am giving each of the students a cardstock 8.5x11 sheet to decorate as a cover for this binder. You'll remember it was part of my QR Code postings.

I also made a little Prezi slideshow attached to the QR Code to help parents with the layout, Binder Covers


The final thing that I put into these binders is a gallon sized ziploc baggie that has been reinforced with duct tape and hole punched.

The students will keep homework papers, unfinished work, and works in progress in these packets. They could also slip in a book to read so that important materials won't get lost in between school and home. Now everything is in a neat package that fits inside their desks. They will also pick up some responsibility skills by making sure that this binder goes home every night and returns every morning.

I'm looking forward to this little bit of organization this year.