I am not a fan of whole group math, but I’m also not a fan of prepping a bunch of materials every single day. So, for a while I felt stuck. Should I teach whole group math, even though I don’t like it? Or should I suck it up and spend extra time prepping materials for math stations?

I finally decided that I needed to find a way to ditch whole group math without adding a ton of extra prep onto my plate each week. I’m going to share with you what I do, but keep in mind you may need to modify to make this work for you and your classroom!

This took a little bit or work to prep at the beginning of the year, but I only spend about 5 minutes prepping math stations and I only prep new stations twice a week. Ten minutes a week is not bad at all!

Also remember I’m not an expert. I’m just a teacher sharing what works for me, hoping it works for you too!

How I Structure Math Rotations

First, it’s important that you understand the overall structure of my math time. So, here’s the gist.

Mini- Lesson (~15 minutes)- This is our only whole group math time! I take about 10 minutes to introduce a topic and do a few problems together. The key is to truly make this a MINI-lesson.

During this time, students typically work on white boards along with me. This gives me a sense of which students are getting it right away and which students need more support. I usually jot down the names of students who need more support. If the whole class needs more support, I make a note to do this topic again in tomorrow’s mini-lesson.

I do a mini-lesson every single day. Personally, I just modify my school’s curriculum. Sometimes I move on to a new lesson every day, sometimes I spend 2-3 days on one lesson.

Rotations (~20 mins each, ~40 mins total): My students are split into four different groups. Each group is heterogeneous, meaning the are not separated by ability. Each group goes to two stations each day, so they’ll be at each station twice a week.

Closing (~5 minutes) - After going to two different stations, my students will come back to our meeting area for our closing. I usually ask the students to name a few big ideas from the lesson or to share some learning that happened in their stations.

Teacher Table: Did you get through these first few paragraphs and think, “What the heck is the teacher doing during these rotations?” I don’t blame you! This is where I do things quite a bit differently than what I typically see during math rotations. I learned this strategy at a guided math conference and I will never go back!

In my classroom, teacher table is not one of the rotations. Students have four rotations that do not include spending time with me.

Instead, I use rotation time to meet with any students I need to meet with for as long as I need to meet with them. So, they may miss part of a rotation or even a whole rotation, but that’s OKAY!

I typically try not to pull students to the small group table if they are at the independent work rotation, but every other rotation is free game. Whatever I am doing with them at the teacher table is more important than the rotation they are missing.

This means I don’t have a limited amount of time with each group and I can be extremely flexible with my groups. I can use the mini-lesson to show me exactly which students need support and pull those students into a group right away. It also means I can have heterogeneous groups. My students are able to help others in their groups because they are not all on the same level.

So, I might be pulling 2 students from the technology station, 2 students from the solve the room station, and 1 student from the game station. These students are all in different small groups, but if they have the same needs for this lesson I can easily make them into a small group for the day.

I also give students the option to come to the small group table on their own during independent work time if they try the work and feel like they need support.

Rotations

Independent work: My math curriculum comes with a workbook so students have independent practice for each lesson. For this station, I will assign an independent work page from their book.

When students finish the assigned page or pages, they leave their book open and lay it by my teacher table. I will glance at it to see how they are doing with the new topic. If they’re doing okay, I give them their book back that day, if I see they need some support, I keep their book at my back table. This lets me know that I need to pull them to the teacher table tomorrow to support them.

If students finish their independent work early, they go get an “extra practice” page. These pages are the homework pages that come with my curriculum. I have all of the homework copied at the beginning of the year so all I have to do is go grab the stack for the current lesson and put it in the “extra practice” drawer.

Note: If I did not have homework pages available to use as extra practice, I would probably do a math menu or set out extra math games instead. I wouldn’t take the time to find and copy an extra worksheet for each lesson.

If students don’t finish their independent practice when the rotation timer is done, they still leave their open book at my table for me to look at. If I can see that they completed most of it and they are understanding the concept, I give the book back to them. Again, if I can see that they are struggling, I keep the book so I can meet with them later.

If students are struggling to complete their independent work independently, they will come to the back table and join my small group to get some support.

Addition Fluency Activity by Fuller Little Minds

Fluency OR Technology: At the beginning of the school year, I did a fluency station. Students used dice, spinners, or dominoes to practice addition and subtraction facts on whiteboards. Quick, easy, and low prep. I noticed a HUGE improvement in their ability to remember addition and subtraction facts as the year progressed.

Later on, I was able to accumulate enough iPads for my students to have a technology station. My school uses iReady. Students spend this rotation working on their iReady lessons. If the iPads aren’t working or another teacher needs to borrow them, then we turn this station back into a fluency station.

Math Games: The biggest factor in making my math rotations low prep is finding math games that are low prep! I do not have time to cut out and laminate a million little game pieces. So I choose games that are “never-ending", meaning they can be played over and over again. Students can’t say “I’m done” and need another activity to do.

I print a game, put it in a sheet protector (or laminate if I’m feeling fancy!) and students use a dry-erase marker to play the game over and over again until time is up. When I prep a game one time, it is ready to go to be used for the whole year!

I also don’t use games to practice current skills. I use games to review skills from previous lesson. I keep all of my games prepped and ready to pull at all times so that I can easily add in a review of any topic. This helps my students to practice skills all year long.

Sometimes, I assign students to a specific game, based on what they need to practice, and sometimes I randomly assign games. It mostly depends on how much time I have.

Solve the Room: I have a bunch of task cards for various first grade math standards. (I had a parent cut and organize all of them for me at the beginning of the year!) I hang the cards around the room and students go around solving the cards using a recording sheet and a clipboard.

Sometimes the task cards relate to our current unit or lesson and sometimes they are a review of a previous skill.

If students finish “solving the room” they turn in their recording sheet (not graded, I just look over it to make sure they are understanding the skill) and get a “challenge math” worksheet. These are worksheets I got from a colleague that cover skills from the next grade. I usually copy about ten of each worksheet and copy a few sets at a time so I don’t have to make copies ever single week.

Again, if I didn’t have those pages already I wouldn’t go out of my way to find challenges pages. I would do some sort of math menu or other low prep option for early finishers.

If students don’t finish, they put the recording sheet in their "still working” folder.

Wednesday Math

Math on Wednesdays looks a little different. My district has early release Wednesdays, so my math time is a little shorter. If I didn’t have an early release day, I would probably do this day on Fridays instead.

On Wednesdays, students need to finish their independent work and their solve the room from the week. If they have all of those things done, or finish those tasks before math time is over, then they get to do what I call “free choice math.”

Free choice math just means that they get to pick their math activity. I let my students choose to play math game that was out (I usually have 6 accessible at all times), repeat the solve the room, get on an iPad to do a math app, do the fluency station, or do the extra or challenge math worksheets if they didn’t get to do those during the week.

Typically during this time I will pull a group or two or students who need some enrichment. I know they will most likely be caught up on work, so I will be pulling them form their free choice math time for a small group lesson.

Weekly Set-Up

It only takes me about five minutes to prep for a new set of stations and I only have to do this twice a week! Here are the tasks I have to do to set-up:

Change Solve the Room Cards: After each group has completed the current solve the room cards, they need to be taken down and replaced with a new set. At the end of the day, I will have two students go around the room and collect all of the cards currently up. Then, I give those students the new set of cards and they go put them up around the room. I use Stikki Clips to hold the cards up. It makes changing the cards a breeze! It also means that students get to do this job for me!

I keep a GIANT pile of task card recording sheets available so I only have to make more copies every few weeks. It’s not part of my set-up each time I change stations.

Change Games: I keep six game bins out at a time, so sometimes I don’t even have to change the bins! I just assign a different game than the game students were playing last week. Even when I do change the game, all I have to do it grab a new game, put it in the bin and call it good! I keep all my games prepped in folders so they are ready to go whenever I need them.

Independent Work: All I do is look in the book, and change the page number on my rotation slides.

Fluency or Technology Station: My fluency station stays prepped in a bin so it can be used whenever needed. I don’t need to do anything to prep iPads!

Extra Practice & Challenge Worksheets: I typically have these copies made and stored so all I have to do is grab a set and change out the drawers!

It takes some time at the beginning of the year to get all of these components prepped and organized, but it is SO WORTH IT! It means that I can run math rotations every single week with very little prep or brain power. I can focus my energy on planning my mini-lesson and preparing for small group instruction instead of prepping games and changing stations.

If you’re interested in learning more about how I organize my math materials to make sure my weekly prep is minimal, stay turned for more blog posts!