guided math |

Looking for something fun to do when you return from the Holiday Break? This New Year’s Math Scavenger Hunt is a great way to practice engage students while practicing math skills!

Math Scavenger Hunts are perfect for guided math, whole class, centers or small groups! They are a great way to have students moving while working with a partner on Math.

And they are so easy for the teacher to prep! Simply print the problems, hang them around the room or another area. Print record sheets for your students and you are all set!

You can hang the problems on the walls in your classroom or hallway.

You can hide the problems on bookshelves or even have a scavenger hunt on the playground if weather permits! Just give students a clipboard to use while they work on their record sheets!

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Click any image in this post to get the Scavenger Hunt!

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While there may be times that you want to use a traditional whole group model for instruction, there are other times you need to work with small groups in order to differentiate for your individual student’s needs. Math workshop (or guided math) is a very successful way to work in small group instruction time and maximize student learning. To make the best use of your time, planning and preparation are key. I have rounded up some of my favorite tips and resources here:

1.) Plan how to use your time! I like to start my Math class with a quick warm up and skill review and then move onto a mini-lesson when needed. Some new concepts can be taught to the whole group quickly and then reinforced in centers / stations. Some need longer time. This is where you have to decide what is best for your classroom, but a few helpful blogs have great ideas for scheduling:

2.) Find or create a simple lesson plan template and/or small group template:

3.) Set up a binder to keep schedules, plans, templates, and notes.

4.) Pick and post your rotation system.

5.) Group students by ability or interest. Grouping should be flexible and change often based on student’s individual needs. For example, sometimes you may need to group students who need re-teaching on a specific skill and other days you may need to group students based on interests when planning projects. Another idea is to sometimes work with students you know will need extra help and pre-teach them a skill you will be teaching the whole class later in the week. This can save you time re-teaching later and will help boost their confidence and success when the class learns the skill.

6.) Teach your students the expectations for groups.

7.) Set up an organizational system and teach your students how the system works.

9.) Reflect and Plan for Next Time: When you get to the end of the schedule, take some time to reflect before setting up the next rotation. What worked? What was confusing? etc… This is also a time to look at your student groups and decide if you need to change anyone to a new group.

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New Year’s Math Fun!