Chapter 3- Math Stretches

Once again I am going to include my thoughts from the first time I participated in the book study for Guided Math- you'll find my first thoughts in italics and pink. 

This chapter was my aha! chapter. I loved everything about it and it really made me feel like this something I can implement into my class next year. Not just something I can implement, but something I WANT to implement. For me, Math Warm-ups will be my number one goal to start in September. 

Looking back at this post makes me feel very proud because Math Stretches have been the most successful thing I implemented into my math program after reading Guided Math the first time around. I loved starting my day on the carpet with my students discussing such a wide variety of math topics. I really found that this routine set the tone of the day, and our whole year, and the students believed and acted like they were mathematicians. 

I have tried many different types of "bell work", "minds on" and other such activities in the morning but nothing really worked well or at least well enough that I was happy with it. Last year, after the Book Whisperer Book Study, I tried having my students independent reading every morning when they arrived at school before we started class. I really liked it. It worked well, the students knew what to do and they easily transitioned into the school day. But...then I would stop them reading and start Math class! So after my students were in a literacy frame of mind, we would immediately start math. Needless to say, we didn't keep up the reading all year because it just didn't make sense.

Now, I have a new plan. Math Stretches!!!

If I plan to start my teaching day with math then it just makes sense that my students should start their day warming up to math. I will keep the independent reading routine in place as well, but instead I will move it to the beginning of my literacy block...where it should be.

And boy did that plan work!!

I also wrote...

 On page 69 I highlighted almost the entire 2nd paragraph and wrote "MY GOAL" in bright marker. How amazing would it be to be able to describe your math class with words like "respectful ambience", "student participation", mathematical vocabulary", "big ideas". I want to be able to recognize the value in my students' comments and construct meaning that prompts students to dig deeper. 

After reading this chapter for a second time I think I am even more excited than the first time through. I made so many notes in the margin and have a thousand ideas swirling through my head. 

In my class we do what I call Morning Math Meeting. In the past it has consisted of part calendar time and part math stretch. My favourite part was always the follow up class discussion around the math concept we were looking at. That being said there are a lot of things I would like to change in order to make the program more efficient. 

Here's a brief snapshot of my thoughts so far- on what I've done in the past and what I want to do in the future:

1. The data collection and analysis stretch was by far one of the easiest to use in my class, quick and simple. I would like to create a more permanent method of collecting the data so I am not creating a new graph all the time. I also like it as an opportunity to integrate other subject areas by asking my students to rate how well they know a topic from science or social studies and then use that data in a math mini-lesson. I also want to brainstorm a huge list of possible data collection topics with my class and keep them in a jar for use throughout the school year. 

2. I need to create more time for my students to reflect on our math stretches in their math journals. I would also like to create a tracking sheet so record how often my students complete these reflections according to the different math strands.

3. The What's Next? math stretch was by far my favourite. I love teaching patterning to students and creating different patterns for them to figure out. 

Check out a post I did on them here. 

4. I really wanted to use the How Did My Family Use Math Last Night? stretch but never seemed to get it off the ground. Definitely a goal for the coming year.

5. I like how Sammons discusses using a different stretch each day of the week but after reading 100 Minutes for my current book study I think that it needs to be reinvented in order to deepen and enrich the experience throughout the year. I also think that it would be beneficial to spiral through the 5 strands of math found in the Onatrio curriculum in order to consistently strengthen my student's skills in all the areas of math. Some thing to think about for sure.

6. Mathematical Current Events- this is a must do goal.

7. CALENDAR- this has become my new pinterest obsession. I really, really, really want to implement a successful calendar program into my grade 3 math class. I have been searching for examples of upper primary math calendars but haven't found exactly what I am looking for. The search will continue and I will be back to post about this more I am sure.

If you know of an example or have an example of a Grade 3 math calendar PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE leave me a comment. I'd love to see it. 

Don't forget to link up and enter this chapter's giveaway.

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Organizing Calendar and Your Math Block

Do you follow Janaye over at Tales of Frogs and Cupcakes? 

Because if you don't, then you really should.

I mean, WOW!!

I started off this year organizing my math journals according to the setup she described on her blog here and now I love doing them. People are so impressed when they visit my class and I so wish I could take credit, but alas it is the impressive Janaye!

Now, she has posted about her morning math meeting time...and in such detail. I am in heaven and will be starting to integrate some her ideas into my morning math meeting as well. Can't wait.

Go here to check it all out.

Patterning-Math Stretches

Not too much to say today...report cards have tuckered me out these last few weeks. It seems like the holidays never even happened! But here are some pics of the patterning math stretches we have been doing lately. Enjoy.

Jelly Bean Data Management (Freebie)

My students and I are still working our way through our Number Sense and Numeration concepts...and it's not taking forever, but I thought it would be good to spice things up a little with another math strand (also, because I need to get the other 4 strands done too!!). Data Management is always a fun and interesting unit, no matter what grade you teach. 

On a separate note, I decided my shelves were looking a little messy so last week after a full evening and morning of parent-teacher interviews I decided to fix them up.

Then I decided I wanted more "wall space" to hang anchor charts in my class, so I put up some sticky hooks on my shelves and ...presto!! More space to hang chart paper. 

Keep reading below to see the charts I hung here. 

I've decided that graphing and sorting will become the main focus of our math stretches, math tubs and hands on activities but that I will continue to teach the needed number sense concepts during my guided math lessons. 

We have been doing a variety of different data collection math stretches since the school year started and have created a few graphs together. We discussed the parts of a bar graph, and created an anchor chart for a frequency table, pictograph and bar graph using the same data. We also wrote some statements about our graphs to analyze the data.

Ta da!!! Data management charts hung on my shelving. 

And finally....the freebie!! Enjoy.

I plan to create a second activity to go along with this one so check back soon. 

Daily Math Calendar (Freebie)

As many of you know I participated in the Guided Math book study this summer and have been attempting to incorporate some of my learning into my math program. I didn't want to overwhelm myself so I set some long and short term goals. If you are interested in reading my previous posts about this topic please click the following two links:

Morning Math Meeting/Math Stretches (Freebie)
Math Stretches and Calendar (Freebie)

As per my goals I have implemented Math Stretches and Calendar, or as I call it, Morning Math Meeting everyday this year. I have found that the Math Stretch is a a great way to get my students on task as soon as they arrive each day and we are able to gather on the carpet immediately for a small bit of community time as well.

I feel like I am learning new things about my student's abilities everyday during our quick Math Stretches. I have seen that the same students struggle repeatedly with completing a number pattern or skip counting which has allowed me to easily target who needs a little extra practice. In addition, our discussions about the Math Stretch has provided information about who is comfortable communicating their knowledge about math in front of the class as a group and who tends to hold back and let others do the talking.

Our Morning Math Meeting (Calendar) has not been done as consistently as our Math Stretch due to the fact that there were certain days in our timetable where we only had 20 minutes in the morning before my students had a rotary class (gym/music/art/etc) but after receiving a new timetable this week that small problem may be fixed!

I did find that the Calendar board I had created for September didn't quite fit all the needs I had for this time with my students. There was nothing wrong with the board per se but I just wasn't super happy with it! At times it seemed almost too easy for my class, (i.e. when we were using small 2 digit numbers) but then other times they really struggled with completing the tasks (i.e. using a 3 digit number). I decided to stick with it for the month of September just to get some routine under our belts and then change it up a bit.

So here is the new board I have set up for October. 

If you choose to download this freebie please remember that feedback and comments are always appreciated.

In other Math-y news, I think I am going to attempt to go whole hog next week with Math Workshop! I am going to jump right in with 2 feet. I have noticed that quite a few of my Grade 3 friends are getting lost in the crowd and just can't concentrate during a whole group lesson so I am going to get together some games and independent practice work this weekend. First thing Monday morning we are going to jump in and see how it goes. Nervous? Yup!!

I did a small trial where I had my class divided into 5 groups- while I met with one of the groups the other 4 played games. It worked well except for the noise level in the class. However, this is something I have been working on with my students in almost every setting and I feel like if I wait until we are totally perfect in this area I might never get Math Workshop off the ground!

Have you tried Math Workshop yet?

Math Routines and Settling In

Things are finally starting to feel normal...my class is settling in and we are getting down to the business of curriculum. Things are feeling good in Grade 3. I was very nervous (and still am a little) about teaching such young friends but I must say that apart from a few moments of frustration I am really enjoying being a primary teacher. Now, I will fully admit that things are slooooooooow going. How can it take that long to write one journal entry?? I mean, really? But I am getting used to it. On the flip side, my former teaching partner moved from Grade 4 to 8 this year and he is shocked by how fast his students complete their work and how much he has to have ready for them to do!

Anyway...

Math!! I am loving it. Who knew that I would ever love teaching math? Not me. But in the past year or so I have learned so much from other blogs and professional reading that it has become one of my favourite parts of the day.

I have fulfilled a few of the goals I created for myself after reading Guided Math as part of this summer's book study already. We have been doing Math Stretches every morning when my students enter the portable. I have a dry erase easel that I have been using for this and planned to take pictures of the different stretches we did each day this week but, unfortunately, I kept forgetting and erased it at the end of the school day in order to get ready for the next day! So sorry! I am going to try to remember all next week to take a picture each day and post it for you. Here is the last one we did this week.

My students were struggling with the concept of "place value"- the idea that the location of a digit determined its value, or how much it was worth. This Math Stretch and the following discussion really seemed to help cement the idea for my students.

The discussion that follows each of the Math Stretches is one of the most enjoyable parts of the whole exercise. So far at least one student has made a small mistake each day but that seems to really be a good thing as it gives us a chance to talk about how to correct mistakes and re-clarify our thinking. I have also been able to see which students are hesitant about math and or are struggling with certain concepts. Isn't amazing how much information can be gathered from such a simple exercise? 

We have also been doing our Number of the Day exercises each day. I am not loving this. 

It takes a long time unless I pick a pretty simple number. I can't even imagine how long it would take if I asked my students to write down anything during this time! Here's a picture of what it looks like so far. It's my own adaption of other Calendar Boards and Number of the Day's I've seen posted in a variety of places. This will definitely be a work in progress and something that will probably change relatively frequently in my classroom as I try out new ideas and bring in new concepts. I welcome any and ALL suggestions people may have for things they are doing in their class that's working for them. 

We have also got our Math Journal up and running. I used the amazing posts from Janaye over at Frogs and Cupcakes to set up and organize my journals this year. I loved all the organizing tips and ideas she has shared.

This is inside the front cover- the rules of our math journals and the start of the Table of Contents.
I also saw a great post awhile back about creating a web of numbers that related to each student as the cover of their Math Journal and I loved the idea....unfortunately I can't remember where it came from. If you know, please leave me a comment so I can give credit where credit is due. Here are some pics of how ours turned out.

Our first two entries include an anchor chart and a short check in question so I can assess how they are doing so far with place value.

 And that's it so far!! On Monday I am going to try a mini-workshop type class. I will be having different groups of students playing some math games while I call others over for a lesson on number lines. It's a little warm up for me before I dive in full force with a math workshop structure. Wish me luck!

Teacher Planning Binder: Information and Forms (Freebie!)

I'm still plugging away at my teacher planning binder. So far everything is just on my computer or in my head, but I am still 4 weeks away from starting school again so I have time to compile everything. When that is done I will definitely post some pictures for you all to see. 

If you missed my first two posts about my teacher planning binder ideas click on the links below...

Teacher Planning Binder Cover Pages

Teacher Planning Binder Extra Cover Pages

I do feel like this is going to be an ongoing process, or at least should be an ongoing process. As the year progresses I will be adding and removing items from my binder as I need to and as it suits my teaching. Some things I plan on NOT putting in this binder are:

1) My guided reading plans- I hope to create a "Pensieve" a la the Cafe book 

2) My guided math plans- still not totally sure what I plan to do here. I know I will be keeping my Math Stretches and Calendar Math plans in one binder/or spiral bound as I outlined in this post.

Click on the picture to head to that post and pick up those freebies if you haven't already!

Other than that I keep my math units in separate binders (or have in the past) based on the unit/strand I am covering.

My Teacher Planning Binder is (hopefully) just going to contain the most vital information needed on a daily basis. As I see it right now, I plan to have the following information in my binder:

1. Assessment Profiles- I moved from a class list style assessment sheet last year to having one sheet per student for assessment. This way I can see my students' achievement in all the areas of their academics in a glance. Don't worry...I will be posting about this soon!

2. Long Range Planning- My team and I completed our Math and Language Arts long range plans before school was out in June (awesome!) so that's done. I need to look over the other subjects I teach but as I like to integrate as much as possible it will really be a matter of fitting Science and Social Studies (mainly) in with my Math and Language programs. 

3. Monthly Calendar- I like to be able to see ahead a few weeks at a single glance so this is an important section for me! I downloaded the calendar pages from Leslie over at Kindergarten Works and so far, these are the only pages in my binder!

4. Student Information- I use this section to keep track of birthdays, transportation, allergies, and past achievements. I have a profile sheet I have used in the past to get a glimpse of my students' past grades and learning skills from their student records but, like many things, I plan to revamp this! 

5. Staff and Team Meetings- This will be new this year. I have always just grabbed a sheet of paper for meetings with my team but had a designated notebook for full staff meetings. I am hoping that if I keep it all in one place I can be more organized in this area.

And that's it!! I don't want too much in one place because I don't think that leads to increased organization...plus, it'll just be too big to lug around with me everywhere. 

So I imagine that by now you are wondering why I wrote freebie in the title...and if you are this far into the post (and have read through all my blabbering on) then you definitely deserve a freebie!

Here are three forms I've created for my teacher planning binder that all free for you!!

Staff and Team Meeting Notes

Student Transportation Form

Student Birthday Form

Do you have a teacher planning binder? 

What do you put in it? 

How did you go about planning and organizing your binder? I'd love to hear from you!!

Math Stretches and Calendar (Freebies)

I have been slightly obsessed with planning for my new math program every since finishing Guided Math and the book study. I plan to start slow, so as to not overwhelm myself, and work towards having a fully integrated guided math program. My first implementation is going to be Calendar and Math Stretches. 

By starting with Calendar and Math Stretches I think that I can get a handle on this new way of teaching math and not overwhelm myself right from the beginning. The Daily 5 will be an integral part of my literacy program and this will only be my second year using it, so I am planning to make changes there as well. As much as I want to jump right in and do EVERYTHING that I read about in Guided Math, I also recognize that I need time as a learner to adjust and stretch my own thinking. Diving right in and doing things just to do them isn't going to help my students and will probably just stress me out. As teachers, I think we need to give ourselves time to learn and grow as much as we give that time to our students. 

So, back to the freebies! Here is my initial set-up for calendar math. I went through the Ontario curriculum for Grade 3 and tried to identify what I felt were the key ideas/concepts that my students would struggle with throughout the year. Grade 3 is also one of the years that our students write EQAO (which is the standardized testing in Ontario) so I wanted to include concepts that would help them across their math studies. It is important for me to recognize that this calendar set-up will change, and should change. This is just my start-up plan to get me going and using this routine in my class. 

Calendar Outline

Click on the image or title to get your own copy!

I also plan to start each day with Math Stretches as they were outlined in Guided Math. I moved the math stretches around to the days I felt would work better for my class/teaching style and also revamped one math stretch completely. On Tuesday I will be doing "Make It Different" instead of "Number of the Day" that is outlined in Guided Math. I decided that I wanted to do a number of the day everyday as part of our calendar math routine, and that it was important for my students to have a weekly practice with composing and decomposing numbers. 

Math Stretches
Click on the image or title to get your own copy!

My next step is to print off a Math Stretch Planning template and five Calendar Math Outlines for each week of the school year and then bind them together. This way I will have a consistent record of what we have covered in both our Math Stretches and during Calendar Time as I plan through the year. However, even as I write this I realize that I plan to change my Calendar ... so maybe just a binder instead of a spiral bound book?

My one thought/question is this...I want to keep my Math Stretch and Calendar time brief and I will be teaching Grade 3 this year so my thoughts are that I will not have my students copy down anything that we do during this time for the good chunk of the beginning of the year. Instead it will be a whole class oral exercise in order to develop our math literacy! Thoughts about this??

I also plan to have my Friday Math Stretch "How Did My Family Use Math This Week?" as part of my student's weekly homework...but that is another post for another day!