Getting It Started Saturday: Math Rotations {Part 2} + Freebies

Thanks for all of your great questions with the first part of starting Math Rotations! If you missed Part 1, be sure to read that first by clicking HERE. I'm calling this mini-series Getting It Started Saturday!

Math Rotations {Part 2}

I am beyond in love with Math Rotations, but it took me a while to take the first step and actually start them up in my class. Starting Daily 5 gave me some confidence, but what worried me the most was the management, grouping, and time crunch that math presents each day (we have a 60-minute math block). 

If you haven't read my Math Rotations posts, I recommend reading them to get some general background knowledge about each of the pieces and parts. The four parts are:

• Teacher Time (direct instruction)
• Lesson Work (practicing independently)
• Math Centers (skill and concept practice & review)
• Fact Practice (skill work on the basic operations)

Every student goes through each of the first three centers every day and, if they are early finishers on Lesson Work, they have the opportunity to do Fact Practice.

Each day begins with kids going straight to their first rotation. I begin with Teacher Time with my lowest group, then switch after ~18 minutes to meet with my medium group, then after ~18 minutes, meet with my high group. After leaving Teacher Time, the kids then go to Lesson Work and then Math Centers. I typically do these rotations Monday-Thursday. 

On Friday, my high kids come in and start with Lesson Work (from the day before's Teacher Time), my middle kids work on Math Centers, and my low kids, who usually meet with me first for Teacher Time, will often do Fact Practice while I work on reteaching some of my strugglers. After ~18 minutes, we stop and use the last ~40 minutes of class to do a game like Monster Math, Scoot, Bingo, etc. Fun times on Friday :)

On Monday, when my high kids come into do Lesson Work during first rotation, I will give them an extension activity (usually provided by our math program) to complete. This allows me to challenge their higher-level thinking skills and make sure they are doing purposeful work during that time. Sometimes, I will also have them do ScootPad on the iPad or computer, since that is CCSS-aligned and self-differentiating for their level. More on this in the video below....

Getting It Started:

Planning & Grouping Students

I made a video that goes through each of the parts of my Math Rotations Planning Pages that you can download for *free* HERE. I hope this helps you wrap your head around planning for and grouping students during Math Rotations:

If you are interested in picking up the chevron Math Rotation signs, you can find them in my TpT Store HERE. If you're interested in the *free* planning packet, you can get that from Google Docs HERE.

If you would like the *editable version* of this packet, it is now available as a PowerPoint in my TpT Store-- simply add text boxes to type your lessons, students' names, and more! Click HERE to read more :)

I hope this helps and leave any questions in the comment section below- I would love to help!