I have to admit, I'm not a huge fan of teaching math. I get mega frustrated! I think it goes back to my days in math when I was little. I went from being advanced in the primary grades to suddenly falling behind and hitting a wall once I got into 5th grade. So I'm constantly trying to find fun and relevant things to help my struggling math kiddos. We ability group for math in 2nd grade. We give a pre-assessment at the beginning of the year and then divide the kids. I have the 2nd lowest group. It's more self-paced that way and makes it easier to teach! I'm a huge fan.
So here are some pics of how I organize my math materials. Since my kids come from all different homerooms, I have buckets with labels on them that they get when they first come in. My desk groups are color-coded, so the buckets have color tags on them. Each student keeps their Daily Math packet and Daily Number book in the bin. It lessens the chance of them forgetting materials or losing them! Under the table I have drawers of manipulatives, homework sheets, activities, and games. Each unit has a drawer. It makes it so easy to find things!
A word about the playing cards...we use Everyday Math. We have sets of playing cards that came with the program, but they all look the same! And there are many games where you only use numbers 0-10. I've tried EVERYTHING to keep the cards organized, including labeling them with numbers, putting them in numbered boxes, etc. They always seem to get mixed up AND it takes the students forever to sort through and take out 11-20. I decided to create my own playing cards! I just made 0-10. If they ever need the higher numbers, we'll just dig out the original cards. Then I copied them onto different color cardstock and laminated them! Now the kids have the cards they need (they're a little big, too, which makes it nice for these youngsters) and it will be SO easy to sort them if they ever get mixed up! They just look for the color cards they had and put them back together!
CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD PLAYING CARDS!
Our Daily Number journals are inspired by several fellow bloggers. I have found these on multiple sites, so I created my own to fit our needs. I typed up the sheets, printed and copied, then bound them together! The book will last the student the entire year.
Ok, I'm sitting here at the school with a screaming baby (I got to tote him along today), so I'm gonna check out and leave! :P Enjoy!
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