Math Centers in My Room

I'm a firm believer in the power of independent math centers and a teacher-led small group - as long as the students are actually working, of course! There's the question of grading math centers (more accountability for students, but more work for teachers) or allowing them to grade (do they cheat??) or requiring nothing to be turned in at all (ikes!). I have tried to find a happy medium in my room that allows flexibility, accountability, and as little extra work for me as possible.

At the end of this post, you'll find a link to an Excel spreadsheet that I use for planning. I've set it up to be printed if you want to, but I never print it. It's a document I pull up on my computer & edit as I'm holding small group (taking attendance, making notes about skills needing to be revisited) and then I save it to our network for my administrators. On my regular plans, I note whether we held centers that day or if we did something different - whole class computer lab, graded assignment, extra lesson time, etc.

My Schedule

Everyone's math block looks a little different. Mine is 90 minutes (give or take). I have the students do their Daily Review and XtraMath (to practice fact fluency - it's free!) for about 15 minutes. We then review the Daily Math and move into our lesson (about 40 minutes). The rest of the class time is for centers or an assignment.

The reality of teaching is that we have to take grades. The last two weeks before Thanksgivings, I tried putting a graded assignment into my center rotation and it was a nightmare. I had no idea who had completed it (who needed extra time per their 504 or IEP), who was absent (since it was done over a 5 day period), and the kids that did it on the first day didn't get any sort of feedback for about a week. It didn't work.

And the stress on me to make sure we finished the lesson with enough time for students to complete their centers - one of which was a graded assignment??!?! Let's not even go there! After those two weeks, I gave up and didn't even try to attempt it between Thanksgiving & Christmas. (Getting really sick for over a week didn't help me teach at all either...)

In January, I'm going back to the schedule I put into place three years ago when my son broke his leg. I missed 1-3 days of school each week over an 8 week period. At that time, it was impossible to leave centers for a sub (can we spell play time???). Instead, I made up a rotation and if we got to centers that day - great! If not, no big deal. We'll do the next day's centers when we got to it. This allowed me to extend a lesson if I needed to and skip centers; all students did assignments on the same day; and if I had a sub, I didn't panic about trying to write up what each center was supposed to be doing. Not to mention, it didn't phase me when we had a 4 day work week, a field trip, or a random assembly. No centers? No problem!

It works for me. Will it work for every teacher? Probably not. We're all different. For me, though, I needed less stress and taking away the requirement that I get to centers every day for x number of minutes was what I needed!

Planning Centers

When planning centers, I keep it as simple as possible. There's the teacher-led small group, a computer station, and seat work.

Teacher-Led Small Group: I use data to determine what skills my students need to work on. Then, I'll either group students using that data or pull whatever students I need that day from their center. Either way works as long as you're not taking actual grades on the centers. For the curriculum, I may invent my own from time-to-time, but more often I'll use the reteach lessons in my textbook or the lessons our computer software gives us (iReady is the software we use). Slight changes are always needed, of course, but it gives me a starting point without reinventing the wheel. Students keep all work we do in their Math notebooks. Sometimes, I'll assign a homework sheet from CommonCoreSheets and then pull those students to review the work the next center day before I pull my small group for that day. (That website is amazing, by the way. It's completely free and has worksheets for pretty much every Common Core math standard. And, each worksheet has about 10 different variations. So, if a kid struggles on the assignment, reteach it and reassess it using a different worksheet. Oh, and the worksheets are designed so that you can lay them out about and grade about a half dozen at a time. MAJOR time saver!)

Computer Station: My students work on a computer program called iReady. They have their user names & passwords in their notebooks (or memorized) and log in by themselves. They record their work & test scores in their notebooks. When they come to small group, I do a quick check in with them to see if there is anything they're struggling with. If so, I can do a mini-lesson there or pull them when I finish with the small group. We also have an incentive system built around iReady so that they're rewarded after they pass so many lessons.

Seat Work: My seat work stations are always something familiar so that there is no learning curve. I like to use Math Ladders or Games that use Task Cards. Once I teach students how to do these centers, I switch out the skill. They're then constantly changing the skill being practiced, but not learning how to play a new game. I find this to be a lot more beneficial than the store-bought games that focus on one skill (or a bunch of random skills, including ones I haven't taught). The store-bought games require me to spend a lot more money and the kids spend more of their center time reading the directions rather than playing the game. If I do happen to throw a game in that's not a regular (my Go Fish games are popular), then I try to keep it for at least two weeks so they can learn the style of game and then have real practice time with it.

Grading Centers

I've gone between everything from grading all centers, choose a center to grade, and grading none. The challenge I have with grading centers is what to do when students are absent or pulled for small group instruction. Make up work is not possible because we change classes. There is literally no extra time in my students' days for make up work.

This year, I'm having students keep their work in their Math Notebooks. If I know of a student that is chronically off task, I can conference with him/her about the math work when I finish early with a small group. I've also put the students in groups and am awarding points to each group when I see them on task or deducting points when they're off task. Fourth graders are very competitive and these points equal tickets to them to use in our book raffle. (See my other post about the book raffle for a cheap incentive for students!)


Free Download

Click the picture below to download my Excel Planning file from my Google Drive.

Christmas Gifts for Co-Workers

I always want to give my co-workers a little something at this time of year, but both time and money are tight - as is true for a lot of teachers. I've come up with a few solutions over the years that my teammates love and even look forward to.

Fudge - hands down, a favorite of theirs (and it's gluten free). I've heard that fudge can be difficult, but Kraft's Fantasy Fudge recipe has yet to fail me. My little secret? Double the recipe & pour it into a 9x13 foil-lined pan. The fudge turns out roughly an inch thick. I cut it into 24 squares and give each person two huge pieces of fudge that look like they came straight from an over-priced candy shop on Main Street USA. ºoº

Kraft's Recipe (Already Doubled For Your Convienence)
6 cups white sugar
1 1/2 cups butter (3 sticks - softened or not...doesn't really matter)
1 1/3 cups evaporated milk (I just use 2 small cans. Do NOT use sweetened condensed milk.)
24 oz of "fun stuff"* - more on this later
2 (7 oz) jars of marshmallow cream
1 cup chopped walnuts (I always omit these since some people - ME! - don't like nuts in their fudge.)
2 tsp vanilla extract**
festive sprinkles

Line a 9x13 pan with foil making sure to really press it into the corners. This will ensure that the corner pieces look decent and can be used for gifting. (Or you can plan on cutting a bit off all the way around and "testing" your fudge to make sure it's good to gift!)

Mix sugar, butter, and evaporated milk in a large, heavy saucepan over medium heat, stirring constantly. Bring to a full boil. Boil for 3 more minutes while stirring constantly. This is crucial. You must boil the full amount of time. As I start to think mine is boiling, I glance at the clock. Usually, it takes another 45 seconds or so to really get boiling. So, I probably boil mine for 3-4 minutes. Allrecipes.com says 5 minutes....haven't tried that, but as long as you're stirring constantly it should be fine.

Remove pan from heat & stir in the "fun stuff"* and marshmallow cream until everything is melted and smooth. (If using a chip, stir a little extra to really make sure they've all melted. One year I didn't...I had tiny bits of chocolate chips in my fudge. Co-workers actually loved that batch...) Add the vanilla extract last.

Pour into the foiled pan and immediately add some sprinkles to make it look festive. Let it cool completely. Then, lift the whole pieces of foil out of the pan, set it on a large, flat surface, and cut it into 24 huge squares with a pizza slicer. Wrap in plastic wrap and tie 2 together with a nice bit of ribbon.

*The "Fun Stuff"....Kraft says to use chocolate chips. Two 12 oz bags will do it. I say...mix it up! One of my best recipes uses peanut butter. I replace the chocolate chips with about 3 cups of peanut butter. The only thing to be careful of here is that chocolate chips are hard and peanut butter is very gooey - which is why I don't put in 4 cups. This fudge will turn out softer than regular fudge, but it's my favorite!

*Fun Stuff to Try: any type of chip (chocolate, butterscotch, white chocolate, etc.); 3 cups of peanut butter; white chocolate chips with a couple of tablespoons of ginger (gingerbread fudge); white chocolate chips with peppermint extract (replaces the vanilla) & crushed candy canes. I also like to do a regular batch of peanut butter fudge and then add a thin layer of chocolate fudge on top. The possibilities are endless!

**Vanilla extract can be replaced with any type of extract. I like to mix it up with peppermint and make candy-cane fudge for at least one batch each Christmas. Hmmm....I wonder how orange or raspberry extract would go with chocolate....


Sugar Scrub - I needed this for a diabetic co-workers. My fudge was definitely out. But, we both got to enjoy this scrub since it made so much!

Mix together: a good coconut oil & white sugar. I started with about 1 cup of sugar and then added tablespoons of coconut oil until I got the texture I wanted. Add a couple drops of essential oil. I used lavender...what teacher doesn't need to relax right around Christmas with our high-stakes tests right around the corner??

Dollar Tree had small jars I put the scrub in and then dropped it into a nice little gift bag. Done!! And, these could be done over Thanksgiving break giving you a head start on your gifts.


Dry Rubs - My hubby LOVES his grill and cooking out for us - we live in FL where we can use the grill almost year-round - and some of these dry rubs are our favorites. They would make a nice gift for the man on your team that isn't into sweets or girlie-bath stuff. Scroll down her page just a few inches to find a visual recipe graphic you can save to your hard drive.  10 Dry Rub Recipes to Up Your Barbecue Game