Math Center Madness

Hi Everyone,

I'm so happy to be blogging! The beginning of the year always comes full swing and I always fall a little behind on my posts AND my blog stalking! I've been catching up and it feels great! You know it's worth while when you add creating units and blogging about your school day to the looooooooonnnnggggg list of things we teachers do! I could be out with friends or, let's face it, doing what I really want to be doing right now... Taking a Nap,

but instead I'm typing away and loving every minute of it!

I wanted to stop by to talk to you about some fun stuff that's going on in our classroom. Language Arts has to be my all time favorite subject to teach, especially in second grade. I was not "into" math as a student and well, I'm not as "into" math as a teacher either! I'm a reading and writing girl. All the Way! This year, I am making it a point to become a MATH GIRL!

Yes, that's a thing, and I'm gonna succeed!

I decided to make centers for all of the units we are covering in math and so far they are proving to be a great success. The kiddies are gonna rock math this year!

I am making a series of centers and should have a total of about 30 by the end of the school year! A big feat, I know... But well worth the hard work and efforts.

My students are learning and having fun doing it!

I began by introducing the concepts in our math workbook and created a math word wall with all the important words we are using. Math language IS language after all... Right?!

And, I'm all about language!

We are working on the concepts of Representing Numbers and Reading and Writing Numbers.

To introduce the word wall and review some of the words we had learned, I decided to make a little game. Students had to answer the questions, by using words from the word wall. It was a second grade form of Jeopardy! Sometimes, I feel so clever! Hehe!

Sidebar: I have to admit this... I didn't feel so clever, in the last 3 minutes, as I tried to get the front page picture to stay on the left side of this post!

Ahhhh, blogger! Gotta love when it's uncooperative and does wtv it darn well wants!

This activity was a lot of fun and I got to assess what the students had learned and retained over the first two weeks of school.

You can grab a FREE copy of the word wall and activity sheet right HERE!

You may also want to check out my Representing Numbers and Missing Numbers packs.

I combined the two packs to make a total of 8 centers. I printed in color and laminated the sheets. The students write on the laminated cards with dry erase markers (you'd think I'd given them bars of gold)! I also chose 4 out of the 8 centers to use as assessments. The students record their answer for ONE card on paper and then complete the rest of the center on the laminated cards. It's working effectively.

Of course, I walk around and help as needed. I also take notes with my trusty pen and clipboard.

Here are some "action" shots! I love how hard they work!