Monday, April 29, 2013

Math Box Monday (Organization Tips)

I love peeking into other teachers' classrooms and seeing how they organize their classes and materials.  I wanted to give you a little look at my math box organization and storage.
We call them math boxes in my class.  But you may call them math stations or math centers or math tubs.  Whatever you refer to them as in your class, I'm sure you know they are a great addition to your math time.
I try to use them everyday.  I partner students together during their math box time.  I usually partner a stronger student with a weaker student.  If I have an odd number of students, one will just work independently.  I leave the partners together for as long as that set of math boxes are out (usually about a month).  When I change my boxes, I also change the partner arrangement in the class.  
This arrangement has worked well, but I continually remind the students to take turns so that one student is not doing all the work.
So there you have a brief explanation of how I organize my students.  Below you can see how I setup and organize my boxes.

My students really like to do math box and I love the constant review I can work in by having them as part of my math time.  If you do not use them, summer is coming up.  You will have some time to think about how you can work them into your class' routine.
Thanks for reading and please say a little prayer for me because the countdown continues.
Have a great evening.

3 comments:

  1. Your organization is my ideal. Thanks for giving me something to strive for =) Have a good week! Love the mothers day freebie thank you!!

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  2. Your organization is always so nice! We have a very similar system; but we call them math bags. We also like to have students do a math box/bag more than once. Your little girl looks excited for KG!!!
    Tamra and Sarah
    First Grade Buddies

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  3. Thanks for sharing how you organize your math stations! I like the envelope idea for storing stations that are not being used at the time. I have a wonderful system--throwing them in ziplock bags and chucking them in a big tub! Uugh! Need to do something different... Appreciate this post!

    Happy Friday!
    Sarah @ Hoots N' Hollers

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