I am a huge advocate for personalized learning. In order to do that I implement learning stations into every subject area. My goal is to deliver the bulk of my instruction in groups of 5-6 students where each student is interacting with activities, stories, games, lessons that are tailored to their developmental and instructional goals. I use this in literacy, writing, and math. My class meets on the carpet for morning meeting for about 20-25 minutes. That is the longest I keep my kids on the carpet all day. The rest of our day is spent rotating through learning stations with quick transitions and check in's in-between. I do have 5-6 minute read alouds what focus on social emotional and comprehension goals but other than that we are rotating away. I would say that minus specials, lunch and recess we have about 4 hours of instructional time in a typical day. My goal is to keep my kids on the carpet for only about 45 minutes of that time each day.
In order to do that, I need to provide the kids with engaging and educational learning stations. This post is aimed at giving you a glimpse into my current math rotations.
This station is run by me. The station has a weekly math problem that incorporates our math focus that week. I use technology and classroom manipulative to scaffold the instruction to meet each child's goals and needs. In this picture, we are using the app Number Pieces to solve a problem dealing with sums of ten. They will then put their screen shots from this app and put them in Popplet to organize the pictures. They will then move their Popplet to Explain Everything to explain their mathematical thinking. The station runs for 20 minutes. This kids will have at least 3 sessions (1 hour) to complete the prompt.
This is our "home base" to integrate coding seamlessly into our classroom. I use this station to engage students in "unplugged" coding activities as well as engaging coding apps. As the year develops, the kids become more comfortable coding. At that point, students use this station to work on coding projects using coding robots and apps such as Scratch Jr.
In this station, children choose math games that interest them and are aimed at engaging them in mathematical concepts we are covering in class.
These stations are engaging and very focused. The kids build independence as they monitor their own learning. This independence gives me invaluable time to work with children in small, differentiated learning groups.
Some new "unplugged" coding movies!
I am a month and a half into the school year. Coding has become such a fun part of my teaching. I truly believe in the importance of teaching coding. It also doesn't hurt that my kids love it. At this point in the year, we are wrapping up our "unplugged" coding activities. I still want to integrate a coding "dance" chart again and use it regularly, but I can do that as the year develops. To give a little insight into where we are at, please enjoy the video's below. We have done some fun and engaging coding activities this past month! Enjoy!