Fact Fluency in First Grade!

When you hear the term fact fluency, you often think of a timed test of addition or subtraction facts. This is what I used to think of too. I've dug more into that term and realized that students do not become fluent fact solvers unless they can successfully understand numbers and the strategies used to solve a variety of addition and subtraction equations.

A few years ago, I was noticing that I was teaching my first graders all of these fact solving strategies to help them become better mathematicians. As we were building upon concepts, I began noticing that some important concepts were being forgotten. We would have to take a few steps back, review and redo. I had math stations in place, but they were whatever I could muster together at the time because... *new baby!*

This is when the idea of a Fact Fluency packet arose. I chose particular strategies that my students needed at certain points in the year, created extremely easy prep activities and we set off practicing our fact fluency strategies each Friday.

Today, I want to show you the first Fact Fluency pack. It's my back to school unit and it's specifically geared for first grade. My recommendation with the first pack is to start the kids off very slowly. Each day during the first few weeks of the year my students and I have a mini-lesson practicing one of the skills inside the fact fluency product. Once we have a mini-lesson, I decide if they can do it on their own, need a partner or need whole class guidance. I pass it out, we do it and done! When I feel like they can tackle four of the concepts successfully, then we begin Fact Fluency Friday.

Fact Fluency Friday is where I set out four buckets. In each bucket, there is a different activity that allows students to practice a different math skill that they have already learned. Each student is also given a Checklist. They get to choose which tub they begin with. When they finish, they bring their paper to me. I check it, return it and place a smiley face or sticker on the number they completed. For example, if they took an activity from tub 1, they would get a completion sticker on #1 on their checklist.

Here is an example of the set up of Fact Fluency on a Friday.

You could easily have students do these for math stations as well. Each day, during math station time, they choose which activity to do. They can still earn stickers as they finish. Either way will get the same results!

Once all of the buckets are out, then you want to fill each one with a different activity. You get to choose which activity goes in each number. I did not pre-number them as there are more than four concepts included in most of my Fact Fluency Products.

After you choose which activity the students will complete, then you will want to set out the manipulatives or supplies that students will need to complete each activity. In the back to school file, I have included printable versions of the manipulatives that you will need to fit the back to school theme, but you can always use what you already have! The things included are number lines to 10 and counters.

Now that you know how the system works. Here are the actual concepts covered in the Back to School Fact Fluency Product. I have also pictured the materials you will need with each activity!

This first activity focuses on practicing the skill one 1 more and 1 less using numbers under 20. One of my favorite math tools that I have my students use all year is the build it mat that you see here. It allows students to manipulative their numbers in an organized manner. It also emphasizes the language and symbols of +1 and -1!

This next activity is all about making ten! This is such an important skill to master in first grade. Students work on using number lines or counters to solve addition equations. 

This next activity is all about writing those numbers and counting up to 52! Students get to practice two things at once here! They simply trace all of their numbers, cut them out and place them in the correct empty spaces so that they are in sequential order.

This is one that I LOVE! Students are working here to look at a series of four numbers. Their job is to identify if YES! Those four numbers are in order from least to greatest or NO! Those four numbers are not in order from least to greatest.

This last one allows students to practice drawing math pictures to solve addition equations. It also allows students to view a picture and create a matching addition equation. For example, if there is one black dot and three white dots then the addition equation would be 1+3=4.

As you can see, each concept includes four different activities! That gives students four weeks of practice on that skill before they move onto the next set of fact fluency strategy skills!

Next up, organizing these each month.

I simply, stick the cover of the product on the front of the folder.

Inside the folder I place my master copies and any manipulatives that I cut and print out for use.

I also like to include the contents of the product so I know which concepts are covered. I saves me time so I don't have to sift through all of the papers.

There you go, Fact Fluency! If you're interested in trying out the Back to School file, click here!

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First Week Math Lesson Plans

Are you doing your lesson plans and not really sure where to begin? That was me a few years ago before I realized what was the most important thing to teach week ONE of school! I used to think I need to begin my curriculum day one, but no...! Expectations, expectations... and some more expectations!

I am here to share my math lesson plans with YOU for my first week of school! I always start off with the fun stuff... manipulatives! If I can get the kids using manipulatives correctly and playing games with a partner correctly then setting up the rest of my math block is seriously a breeze! No JOKE!

These are my objectives for the first week of school:
I use these to help keep me focused because I do love to get distracted by other things! This keeps me in line with what is actually important!

As you see above, I am not focusing on the standards. Why? Well, because the standards are NOT going to get met if the kids don't know how to interact with materials and one another appropriately. Trust me! Do all this stuff NOW or you WILL be doing it allllll year long!

When setting these expectations, do not give the kids wiggle room to "misbehave" either. 

You need them to learn how to act correctly right away so you CAN get a move on it with your math curriculum.

Okay, now what you came for! Week ONE PLANS!! 

Please keep in mind, I will do my very best to stick to the plans below but if my kids aren't doing well with noise level for example, then we will be reconvening and practicing a LOT!

If you click on the image below, you can download my plans and click on the pictures to be taken to that math activity.

The great thing about week one is that after it's done, the students will already know FOUR math games! Next week, I will begin introducing the technology center and students will begin to rotate through three math stations. We use Ipads in our classroom and a math program called ST Math.

Throughout rotations I will continue to assess students basic understandings of math and look for any red flags so they can be tackled right away!

I hope you found this post helpful!

For more blog posts about my math workshop, click the links below!!

Structuring Your Math Block

Tracking Data to Drive Your Instruction

Math Workshop Behavior Tips

Math Talk: Calendar With Purpose

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Math Workshop Behavior Tips!

Do you want to try Math Workshop rotations next year, but your kid's behavior habits from the past have reallyyyy made you rethink that? Trust me, I get it!! I've had behavior in my classroom that I never imagined I would have to put up with... all within the last two years. The upside of that experience is that I've gotten real creative with my behavior management tricks, especially during math workshop.

Here are some key points that I will touch on in this post.

1. Assign designated areas to complete a task.

When your students go to their stations, make sure they know where to do their work at. I have four stations that I kids rotate through. Each station that they visit, they have a designated area in the classroom where they must go.

Teacher Table: They come to the table for their math lesson with me

On My Own: Students sit at a table with privacy offices to work on their independent work.

Games: Students sit in a corner of the room at designated tables to play games.

Technology: Students find pink sticky notes that I stick around the room. They take their ipad to that place in the room to work on their activity.

You can read more about my math stations here.

2. Organize your materials.

 Make sure your students know where their things are at. Make math tools easily accessible and easy to put away. Organize their work that they'll be doing when they're not with you so they aren't questioning things or wondering what to do. I give my kids math games to play that we've played before in whole group. Also, my kids complete math workbooks for independent work so they aren't having to deal with loose paper, glue, scissors and such! 

3. Stay consistent with your behavior plan.

Don't let up with behavior expectations during math workshop. Start the year off strong. Stop if you need to and discuss what needs to improve. In between rotations, compliment positive behavior.

4. Play calming music.

There is just something about calm music that allows everyone to keep their calm zen. I love to play beetles calming music. It has a nice little tune and I find students stay quiet so they can hear it! ;-)

5. Set a sound meter!

Sound meters have saved my life a time or two. The kids learn to control their volume through the use of this thing! I love it! You have to turn your volume off on your computer and allow the microphone to work. When the sound meter goes to red, that means kids are too loud. You can also alter its sensitivity!

6. Set up privacy offices.

I started my teaching career with privacy offices and I've never looked back. Yes, I love collaboration, but students also need to learn to hunker down and focus on their own work. My kids use the offices during their on my math workshop station.

7. Assign station coaches.

This is something new that I started this year. It's a classroom job that's given to students who show that they can be responsible enough to listen and follow directions, help others and get back on task. When other student's have a question, they go to the station coaches first to ask for help. 

8. Reflect.

Reflect. Reflect. Reflect. When beginning math workshop you have to talk about what just happened, the good and the bad. At the beginning of the year, I especially make it a point to reflect after everything we do. As the year goes on, I do it less frequently because it isn't needed as much.

When we reflect, we discuss 3 things that went well and 3 things that would go better next time. Sometimes we will jot them on the board and visit them before we start our math workshop the next day. It's so beneficial!

I hope you enjoyed this post, as well as all of my others about math workshop! To read more math workshop posts you can click the links below.

We are also having a giveaway to celebrate this series of math workshop posts! Hopefully there is something that you could use in your own classroom!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

An InLinkz Link-up

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Tracking Data to Drive Instruction

Welcome to a series of blog posts all about GUIDED MATH! It seems like a scary thing to jump into and I want to let you know it's not. The nine bloggers you see below and myself have joined together to bring you a series of posts to inform you of ALL THINGS guided math! Let's get started!

I'll be tackling How to use DATA to drive INSTRUCTION!

 We love it, we hate it, we hate it some more, BUT we NEED it!

I have a system my school uses called DMA to help us out, but I like to use a little more than just that. 

I'll explain more below! 

The first thing you need to know before being able to USE your data effectively to drive instruction is a way to do it.

You'll want to ask yourself these 3 key questions:

1. How is my math block structured so I can attend to the needs of my kids?
2. How will I record the data?
3. How I will I update my data?

Here are my answers to those questions:

1. The way I structure my math block is in a four station rotation (teacher table, on my own station, games station and technology station). My students rotate every 15 minutes. This structure allows me to meet with every group EVERY DAY!

2. I record my pre-assessment and post assessment data in my math binder. In between the assessments, I record math data using a math binder on  a daily basis. I jot down things I notice them doing or not yet doing. Doing this allows me to remember what they need when they return to me the next day AND to see if I'm noticing a pattern in the class.

3. I update my data as I teach. If I notice a student or the group of students have mastered a concept, I make note of it and make any instructional changes that I feel are needed. If the data is showing a student is struggling with understanding a concept, I update that students data and decide what to do next.

I use my planning sheet a lot to record observations that I see during math group time. I always start the week with a focus for each group. As I teach, the focus changes based on their needs. You can see that by looking at the top box of each groups plans below.

As I teach, I also fill in activities for small group for the week. I always start with ONE for sure activity that we'll begin with. Then, I will decide what to do next based on what the kids do. Honestly, I don't always do worksheets with them, I am not always printing stuff off. I've got math tools, my whiteboard, note cards and white computer paper. One time a week, we WILL play a prepped game for review of the skill overall.

 When I am talking about analyzing data purposefully here, I am really talking about more of the summative assessment type of data. Always, always use your formative assessments to guide your instruction every. single. day. During my math workshop I have a station called 'On My Own.' This is where students display their understanding of a certain math concept on their own, without help (unless I state otherwise).

Normally, 'On My Own' is review work of previous concepts. Sometimes, I will throw in an activity to really assess their understanding of what we are doing at that current moment. I take more time to analyze that data. I do this using a four box system and STICKERS!

This is what my little table looks like when I go to analyze my data. Again, everything is kept in my math binder so I don't have to waste time gathering my materials. I keep their papers in a folder, I have my data forms and stickers to mark levels of understanding.

Here are the papers sorted into piles and what the stickers mean.

Blue - Concept mastered and a little beyond.
Green - Concept mastered
Yellow - Gaining an understanding of concept
Red - Concept not understood yet

As I am analyzing data, I determine and organize student names based on four factors:

1. These students have mastered the concept and beyond.
2. These students have shown mastery.
3. These students are beginning to understand the concept.

4. These students do not yet understand the concept.

I sort my papers into four piles, write names in four boxes and put stickers on the top of each pile to make the piles easier for me to find if I need to look at them again to gain more information. You can grab the printable I use here.

 I also look for patterns when I am analyzing data. Sometimes, the majority of the class is having a misconception and I record that information on the 'Data Breakdown' form. This is where I get my ideas for my mini-whole group math lessons before we start our math rotations.

Once you've analyzed all that data, it's time to GET TO WORK! Open up that math binder, meet with those groups and instruct them based on where they are! Take notes as you teach them of things your noticing! You will be absolutely STUNNED to find that you actually become a much better teacher by doing the front load work.

When your planning to meet with those groups, you also need a plan in place. No you don't need different activities for each group, or laminated cards or worksheets all the tie. Honestly, get those math tools you need and write down a 2-3 step plan. Use note cards to write math problems, grab a worksheet and provide a different level of support for each group, use a game and change the numbers. It's very easy to differentiate when you KNOW THE NEEDS of your kids!

This is what I use to write out a plan for my kids and what they need:

To read more about guided math, click the links below!

An InLinkz Link-up

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Keep it Fresh: Calendar Time!

I have an honest confession to make... I do not like calendar time! :-O I know this is a favorite of many, but boy oh boy I just didn't like it, until this year! I got so bored doing the exact same thing every. single. morning. I could tell the kids did too. I always felt like we were wasting precious learning time. As time went on, the kids got super squirmy too. Maybe it was just me, but I just couldn't get it down and calendar time fell to the wayside, as in-it didn't exist.

This year, I started with cute calendar cards that had the number of the day and all that fun stuff. It worked great at the beginning of the year. Loved it! Then, I noticed we were just doing repetitive stuff, we mastered the skills and were ready to move on. So, I ripped down those cute cards and changed our calendar 'stuff' to not so cute 'stuff.' 

Our calendar time consists more of things that we are currently learning, or things that I see we need more practice with. So, here is my 'not so cute' calendar. ;-)

Next, year I have all intentions of having header cards ready to hang up for when we add a new skill to calendar, but for now. I just write it on the board.

We still count our days in school. Before we did add/subtract 10. We did skills like before/after/1 more/1 less. The skills are just progressing as we learn. I love it, and I get to assess these skills every. single. day!

Now, we are at the point where we can fill out the 10 more/less, 1 more/less table. It's great, continuous practice. After we fill out the table, we identify if the number of the day is odd or even. The kids write it on a whiteboard, show me and then, one student explains WHY it is odd or even. We are always talking about our tens and ones, and odd and even is where it starts!

Sometimes, a students comes up to the board and draws an example of why the number is odd or even.

Afterwards, we organize our base 10 blocks under the 10's and 1's. We redo this every. single. day. I think it's so important to practice counting these! It's easy when they're already up there. I ask students 'trivia questions,' such as: who can tell me how many ones I need to make 58? Then, we put 8 cubes where they belong. Then, I ask how many tens do I need for 58? Then, we place the longs where they belong. We talk more about the longs/cubes too and remind ourselves of how many ones make a ten, etc. I don't like to teach something and then leave it. So, we keep skills going with my 'always changing calendar."

After, we work with base 10 blocks. We break apart the number 58. Then, the students write the number in expanded form. They can write it in expanded form, but they're still working on the why. So, we hit this every. single. day too!

Two weeks ago, we learned how to add 10 to any  number. It's a tough skill and there are so many patterns. Each day I give a start and an end number. The students count by 10's on their board. We share and then we discuss the patterns we see. So, far the kids have come up with a bazillion patterns that they've seen. There is no way we would've come up with these patterns if I taught this for one week and then just said, 'bye, bye!!' lol I love working with it each day and working to notice the patterns.

Before, I write the 'answers' on the board, the kids complete the task on their own. They've gotten to the point where they get ready for calendar, come to the rug, look at the number of the day and start the 10 & 1 more/less table.

Right now, they're using a whiteboard. It works perfectly fine!

I ask students to only do one part of the calendar at a time. I don't want them doing the whole thing on their board and then we go over all of the parts. I think breaking it up, helps to keep their brains active and learning! It's easy to zone out if we talk about it all at once.

When, they come to the rug. They split their board into fourths. They are able to start their more/less table right away. Then, they're asked to wait, so we can go over it.

Then, the students need to write the word odd/even in the second box. They hold it against their chest and show me. We then, share our thinking.

Third box, students are currently making the number of the day with base 10 blocks.

Fourth box, expanded form.

After we do each part on the board, we talk about it.

Then, when we've went over all parts, students erase their board and do count by 10.

Before we did counts by 10, we worked on these skills: 

1. Counting on from any given number

2. Number formation

3. Counting by 2

4. Counting from 1-20 - circle odd/even numbers

5. Counting by 5

The number reversals in my classroom have improved IMMENSELY and I really believe it's because we literally count and write numbers every day!

As we go through the answers/skills. I ask students to self-assess. If they got it right. They give themselves a smiley.

Later in the year, I would like to introduce levels of understanding to students and begin to incorporate it here.

Once, calendar is over. We move right into math. The kids erase their boards, sit on it, place their cap on their marker and set it by their foot. Yes, there were lots of giggles when we started this because Mrs. Hursh made them sit on their boards. But, now-it's just our norm. They do it fast and they're ready for our quick math mini-lesson before our math workshop rotations!

At this point, the kids have already been sitting for about 10 minutes. Which means, I maybe got a good 5-8 minutes left of focus... if I'm lucky!!

Our mini-lessons for math come RIGHT AFTER calendar time. Sometimes, I introduce a game, station sort, we sing a song or I simply introduce a math workshop activity that they may find confusing. All of my direct teaching for math happens at the teacher table, so I don't need to use much of my time direct teaching here.

If i teach the kids a sort for a mini-lesson, which I do about 2 times a week- we do the sort over 2 days. Then, they are free to do it during their math game station.

I'll be back to give another run down of math workshop.

 It's changed since my last post.

I hope you gathered a few ideas for your calendar time with your littles!! :-)

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My Math Block & Place Value

I absolutely love to teach math to first graders! There is so much 'newness' and so many light-bulb moments! I always share pictures of my math block on Instagram, and it only makes sense to now do a little blog post to give you the lowdown of how I run it.

Here is a little glimpse at how I run my math block each day!

We start our math time with calendar time. 

Afterwards, I do a direct teaching lesson.

This is where I model the concept we are learning for the day.

This past week we began to learn about place value. One day, my direct instruction lesson was a read aloud! I read this book to students and I used my magnetic base 10 blocks on my whiteboard to help deepen their understanding.

After, I model the concept we are learning for the day, students participate in an activity to help deepen their understanding. I like to make this time as hands on as possible. 

Here students are counting materials. Our goal was to find strategies to make counting easier.

Some students made connections with the read aloud and figured out that making groups of 10's really is easier!! Some students didn't quite grasp that concept, so I made sure to help guide their thinking during this time. Differentiation right here ya'll!! Easy peasy!

Much of the time I like for students to record their thinking in some way. Here I simply gave students a blank white piece of paper. I told them to draw a picture of what they did, tell me the total and some groups were ready to tell me how many groups of tens they made and how many loose ones they had left over. Helloooo place value understanding!!! :-)

After our active learning time, I sometimes give them an activity sheet to complete so I can assess their understanding. We always come back together as a class and discuss our learning for the day. Then, students are off to work with their assigned math station for 20 minutes.

I project the timer onto the board for students to see. It really helps keep us all on track.

Find the online timer here.

The math stations that students do are concepts that have already been taught.

Here is our rotation board and where the stations are stored.

The kids visit one math station a day. ST math is completed on the Ipad and allows students to progress through first grade math concepts at their own pace. 

The On My Own station is where students complete an interactive math journal activity.

You can find this odd and even math journal activity here.

Tubs 1, 2 and 3 contain hands on math station activities like the batty addition sort seen below.

If students finish their math tub activity early, then they can choose a math game to play until math station time is over.

While students work on their math stations, I pull a group of students who need additional support, review of old concepts or I pull my high groups for a 'challenge' activity.

Sometimes, I will pull kids who are doing one of the math tub activities and do it with them, if I know this is a concept they struggle with.

You can also read another math workshop post from me here!

Have a fabulous day!!

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