Small Group Math - First Grade Spies

I recently posted about my FAVORITE block of the day - Math Workshop! My new bloggy friend Laura at First Grade Spies also runs her math block in a very similar way! 

I have a nice, long 80 minute block for math every day, but Laura shows us that even if you only have 60 minutes, small group math is VERY possible and extremely effective! 

She begins with a short, whole-group lesson. Then students move into math stations, each lasting for 12-13 minutes with a 1 minute clean up time between stations. The stations are very similar to the ones I outlined in my previous post.

One thing she does differently, that I LOVE and will be trying out in my classroom ASAP is having students bring the math practice pages to the teacher group each day.  Until recently, I was very fortunate to have a wonderful aid in the room during my math block. She would help the kids with their practice page and I would check them during my prep to see who needed more intervention. I no longer have her in my room and I've been trying to figure out how to make sure my kiddos are getting immediate feedback and intervention! This simple solution will definitely help me with that!

For teachers who have a smartboard, Laura has created a Monster Math Stations slide show that projects the kids names at each station and automatically rotates through each station. This is perfect for teachers, like me, who tend to lose track of time! I'm so sad that I don't have a way to project this! As soon as I get a classroom with a smartboard I am using this great tool!