Ever ask yourself, “Where was Pinterest when I (fill in the blank)?” I do. A lot.
So here is the rundown on how my math block (90 minutes) normally works. I won’t allot times here because you and I both know that every day is different, and it just depends on the students and the concepts being introduced.
-Students open notebooks, write down the concept for the day on their Table of Contents (I usually have this as part of the morning work so it is done and we can get going.)
Mini-lesson: DoD schools have adopted enVisions Math, so sometimes this would be on the SMARTboard, sometimes it would be one of the instructional videos found on enVisions; it just depended what I felt was best at the time.
Guided math: At this time students would write the goal for the day in their notebooks and I would guide them through the lesson. Much of the time they would do this in their notebooks, but sometimes it would be done with manipulatives or in group work first. Regardless, there was ALWAYS something written in their notebooks for them to refer back to.
Centers/Independent Practice: I combined these because students’ independent practice was a center. Students would write their specific task in their notebooks under their guided math portion. I differentiated this by putting a certain type of sticker on the cover of each notebook. For instance, a student who excels in math and needs a challenge may have a circle, while a student who tends to struggle has star, etc. (I finally got a good grip on math rotations this year thanks to THIS FLIPPIN’ AMAZING MATH ROTATION BOARD I found on Teachers Pay Teachers. Changed my life. True story.) My math rotations are: Math Facts, Math Games, Teachers Choice, At Your Seat. When students are ‘at their seat’, they work on their independent practice.
The first few weeks of third grade math are devoted to basic concepts: how to write numbers in word form correctly, place value, comparing numbers, etc. These are skills students will need the entire year, so we focus heavily on them first.
For those that don’t teach: yes, this is necessary. You should see how kids write numbers in word form at the beginning of the year. From this moment on if students write a number in word form incorrectly, I make them go back and write it again using their notebook as a resource.
For more Pintrest-inspired classroom ideas see this post.
4 Comments
These examples are fantastic! I've just started using Maths Journals in my class with my grade 3 students but nothing as amazing as the examples you have provided here. Thank you so much for sharing. I'll be using your ideas for sure!
I am a new 3rd grade teacher and we are using enVision Math series. I was wondering if you have put all of your math notebook ideas online because you have some great ideas and I would like to incorporate them into my lessons. Thank you for your help!
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I am also a new 3rd grade teacher. We are using enVision Math. I am planning to start math notebooks right away! Thank you for the wonderful ideas. Can you please add other notebook ideas you have? You could totally put this together on TPT and sell it! I would love to know more!