I'll warn you.....I am extremely organized and have a system for everything! There should probably be a support group to help me relax once in a while and not be quite as meticulous as I am. So when I learned that the theme for this post would be over Teaching Ideas that I'm Thankful for, I knew that my daily math bins would definitely be my "I-would-totally-lose-my-mind-if-I-didn't-have" topic to post about.
We all have our own style and system. Don't ask me where or why I decided to make this mine....but it works! I have a bin for each day of the week. If these bins are ever empty or the rest of the week is not laid out....you better check to make sure that I haven't been abducted. These are ALWAYS ready by Friday afternoon {or likely before} for the following week.
Each bin starts out empty and I go through and fill them with the math necessities of that particular day. I always begin by placing the
Exit Ticket that I will be using to kick off the instruction. This is the most critical because it will be what determines the course of the instruction for the student. These also are used to remind me what the daily skill will be for that day. For example, in the image above, the students were working on measuring lines to the nearest centimeter or millimeter.
After I have the entire week's Exit Tickets in place, I add a
Math Journal prompt that complements the skill. I have a student who is assigned to be my Center Manager. At the end of the day, while my students are completing classroom jobs, she goes to the bin for the following day and switches out my Math Journal prompt as well as several other things that I have already placed in the bin.
Next, comes our daily word problem. I bought these from
The Teacher Studio. They are absolutely amazing and provide my students with rigorous practice with solving word problems. This is also something that my Center Manager switches out. As long as I have it in the basket, she puts it where it belongs for the following day.
I also add a
computation activity to the bin. Since this bin is my "Monday Bin", I have division practice. My students practice this every Monday. I have the same skills repeatedly practiced in my computation center, covering skills such as subtraction, multiplication, division, fractions, and decimals. I like this because it allows my students to continually use the skills that are often difficult. Many times, my kids will do extremely well while working on a particular skill and then totally lose it when we come back to it at a later time.
Ahhh. Finally. A complete basket. The world is at peace. Well maybe not the
whole world....my corner of the world is anyway. I also add things such as task cards, homework, or other in class activities to the baskets as needed. I know this is such a simple concept, however it keeps me incredibly sane. What I enjoy about using these is the fact that if I prep them ahead of time, my Center Manager can do the majority of the work without my assistance. It takes me less than five minutes after I have my Exit Tickets and Math Journals copied.
So, what organization quirks do you have to keep you sane {and thankful}?
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