KindergartenWorks: math in the morning

Every morning I have out my giant journal (chart paper), strategy posters (mini-sized) and journal prompt ready to go. I meet with half of my class who will be working in their journals and model the prompt and the strategy before we begin guided math for the day. The rest of the class is doing quiet reading and finishing up their morning procedures.

Their journals are stored by group for easy access in these pink bins that I got from the Dollar Tree. They turn them into this white basket after we are done sharing for the day. This basket sits right next to my desk.

Confession: if its not in front of my nose...

I won't remember to do it.

Lesson learned, things get turned in right to my space. I check, flip their bookmarks and lay them out on their tables for the next morning. They return them to their group basket after checking their entry to see what I responded with. I also leave bookmarks on the red side (which is a good visual for me) if any need to be redone.

Since my first post on guided math, I've updated how I make my journal prompts as far as format. Now they are square shaped in order to have visuals as part of the directions. My kinders with the least strong math skills do have the most difficulty with the prompts. Sometimes I create differentiated prompts, but they do need exposure to problem solving just as the others do. (And often, that's what they have difficulty with)

{click to see sample from our second quarter}

Looking towards next year - I'd love to create one more zone so that I can no longer be an assigned "teacher zone" but so that I can create mixed groupings of different leveled kids, so that they can better support each other during this time. Then I can also pull groups based on their needs and also then spend more time working with those kinders who need 1:1 in the problem solving in their journals.

Right now my groups are: recording zone (journaling), practice (games/activities), technology (interactive standards based websites) and teacher zone (me). Any ideas on creating a fourth and different type of zone for kinders to practice independently and learn math in a different way? The only other thing I have thought of is using books... but I'm unsure of the logistics of that and keeping kinders engaged with a smaller range of math literature. I'm open to ideas if you have any to share! I love teaching math this way and its the first time ever that I've loved teaching math.

More Guided Math

Guided Math Before and After

Setting Up a Guided Math Space

Planning for Guided Math

Rotating Guided Math Groups

I know that tweaking it could help, so if you have ideas - share!

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- Leslie