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?