Click here for my Math Games for Guided Math workstations – Sorted by Concept
Ohhh guided math. How I love you.
This year my school has had a giant focus on math. We have been doing a lot of PD days learning the text book and figruing out how to make it work in our classrooms. This past October, I was lucky enough to be able to see the famous Nicki Newton and listen to her methods and ideas. They were Fan-Ta-Stic!
So, there I was. A billion ideas gushing out of my brain, without a hot clue how to set it up in my classroom. I am very picky with organization of my class and how I do things, set them up, and how I want them to look. That being said, I knew I had a few things to keep in mind.
1. I wanted it to be easy for students to do independently
2. I wanted students to have some sort of accountability to their work
3. I wanted to be able to differentiate it without being there with my students 100% of the time
4. I wanted it to last a long time so that I don’t have to keep making these things over and over
The Lesson!
Every day, before we break off into our groups and work on our skills together as a class – usually 5-10 minutes
The Stations!
The Groups!
The Purple Group
Team names change all the time. Students get to choose their team name which makes it way more fun! The purple group is my lower level group. They always start at my macaroni table. During this time, I help them to learn and understand our current concept or skill.
These children begin groups with me, move to math by myself where they take the skills I just gave them and apply them to that work. This group will end off at math with someone where they play the games that help with these skills.
The Blue Group
The Green Group
Math with my Teacher
Math by Myself
 |
| Middle Shelf – Math by Myself – Work envelopes and Student work folders Bottom Shelf – Math with Someone Games – Extra Tools! |
Student Work & Accountability:
At ‘math by myself’ students have 5 jobs they need to complete that relate to the strand or strategy that we are working on. This work is kept on my trolly on the math by myself shelf (shown above). The work is inside numbered folders that look like this.
 |
||
Front Cover – Contains the rules of ‘Math by Myself’ and shows them where to keep their work.
|
The back of the envelope has a page protector attached to keep a visual of the different tasks so students don’t get mixed up between tasks. I also added a velcro dot to the bottom of the page protector so if I feel that an answer key is necessary for the task (so students can understand better what they need to do) they can lift the page protector up and view the answer key on the back.
Students will complete these tasks and check them off in the ‘are you done binder’ when they finish. This binder is also on the math by myself shelf.
 |
| Are you done? Student binder |
 Row 3 – Math with Someone – Games Folders |
 |
| Inside the binder – and the accompanying work folder so students know what job they are on. |
Math With Someone
 |
| Games are added or taken away based on what we are learning about. New games are added for every concept. Old games are taken out or added back based on what I want my students working on. Games are also brought back if students want to play them during free time or just need to brush up on a skill. |
For math with someone, everything students need is kept in our math cupboard. Each game envelope tells the rules of the game, how many players and what materials that are needed for students to work independently and quietly.
 |
| Math with someone just tells the students which shelf to put this back onto. |
 |
| Students can tell exactly what they need just by looking under the flap. |
 |
| My math cupboard.. Everything is labeled so students know where it is kept! |
I hope this tutorial helps to make your guided math work smoothly. If there is anything you don’t understand, or have questions about, feel free to comment or send me an email! My email link is in the sidebar!
2 Comments
Wondering where you got your colored squares that you write the math group kiddos names onto? Also what do you do if a kiddo can't do the independent pages on their own?
Hello Tori,
1.) The colored squares are from Wal Mart. They were about 10.00 each (in Canada) 2) My students work together as a team if they have trouble. They have learned that to be successful, we often need the help of others (give a little, get a little). It works so well in my room. 🙂