In June, I posted a blog post talking all about my math centers for first grade and it was a huge hit! I got a lot of great feedback about how helpful it was to first year teachers, teachers looking for a math center refresh and more. One thing that a few teachers were looking for was a more in depth look at each center. Well, here it comes! Today I am going to give you an in depth look at my Independent Work Station and deep dive into the First Grade Math Journals that I use.
If you haven’t seen my center overview post, you are going to want to check that out first. You can find it here.
Independent Work Center for First Grade
Like I said, be sure to read my center overview post first because it gives all the details of how I run my centers. This post is just going to be how I run independent work. Independent work is one of my center rotations that students visit 4-5 times a week. Every student has independent work 4 days a week, if they do not get it completed by Fun Friday then they get to complete it on Fun Friday, hence the 5 times a week. Those who do finish I reward with Fun Friday, that will be in a blog post to come. Each center in my classroom is 15 minutes long once we get our stamina up. I would say by October centers are running the full 15 minutes.
Where is the Independent Work Center?
Each of my math centers have a designated area. I just find this easier to manage as I can peek up from my small group and see exactly where students should be and doing what. It also allows me to put all of their needed supplies in one area. Each of my centers also has a color, that way they know the yellow bucket has the supplies for the yellow center. I try to think of everything I can to help them work through centers independently so I can focus on small groups.
So, independent work is the math center that is done at their seat. This is the only math center that I require them to do at their seat because I want to ensure that it is truly done independently. This helps me get a read on where they are and who needs help with the skill we are working on. In front of my seating area there is a book shelf that houses all student supplies: clipboards, whiteboards, pencils, tissues, etc. It’s our supply hub. This is where they find the yellow book bin with their independent work folders and the yellow basket that would have any supplies if they need them.
How it works?
When students are at independent work, they grab their folder and if there are supplies in the basket they grab that too. They take their items back to their desk and get started. 95% of the time independent work is their unit Math Journal but sometimes I need it to be something else. If it is a math journal, they complete 1 page then put it away to be checked. If it is a worksheet or another activity, they complete it and put it in our turn in bin. This is rare but does happen sometimes! Now, you may be thinking 1 page of a math journal will not take my students 15 minutes so then what do they do? Great question, my students have a “I’m done” bin that is full of more fun math activities. These activities are still independent. A favorite that I keep in the bin all year long are these tetris like puzzles. I own quite a few of these that I switch out all year long. They may also find mini jenga with math facts on each piece, Lakeshore math activities, etc. Essentially, it’s any math activity that they can play on their own at the seat until the 15 minutes is up. It’s also more of novelty items that they can enjoy and I don’t have to worry about switching them out constantly. I usually only change them when I remember..LOL.
First Grade Math Journals
Okay, so I mentioned that 95% of the time their independent work is a math journal. Let’s talk about what those are. Math Journals are something that I came up with when I needed something simple and student friendly that they could navigate on their own but it focused on our current unit’s skills. Our math curriculum workbook pages were too complicated for independent work. So we do those at my small group table with daily lessons. So, I created these math journals that aligned with our unit standards + our writing to 120 year long standards.
Each journal has 15+ pages, giving 3 weeks of independent work which is about how long our units are. They all have very simple layouts and directions so that students can do them on their own. They are not overwhelming and have just enough problems on each page that I can get a good read on where students are independently without overwhelming my students. These math journals truly were the perfect addition to centers for my students and I. You can check out the complete set of math journals here or you can search by unit here.
How do I prepare First Grade Math Journals?
I have done a few things for Math Journal prep but they have all worked so here are some ideas!
- If you have parent volunteers, high school volunteers, etc math journals are a great thing for them to work on copying. Once copied, you can store them away in a cabinet, file bin, closet, etc.
- At the beginning of the month, you can copy the math journal(s) that you will need for that month and store them in your monthly/weekly copy system.
- At the beginning of a new math unit, you can copy the math journal you will need. Then distribute them on day 1 of that unit.
- At the beginning of the year, you can prepare each math journal for the entire year and store them away.
- On the opposite end, this can be a great end of year activity. You can prepare the next year’s math journals and store them away.
Here’s what I do most of the time. All of my math things: centers, copies, worksheets, warm ups, anchor charts, etc. I like to batch prep at the start of a new unit. This just works best for me. So before leading into a new unit I copy everything I will need, prep everything I will need, change out all center activities, etc. This is an easy reset for me and I truly enjoy prepping activities. I know, I’m weird. But sometimes, especially toward the end of the year, I will batch copy all of the math journals I have left and store them away until I need them to help with the end of year overwhelm. I usually do this around spring break.
Holding Students Accountable
Now that we’ve talked about what students do at independent work, let’s talk about how I keep students accountable. Once students complete their one page for that day, they place their math journal back into their folder. Then, folders go back into the yellow book bin. At the end of math centers each day, my helper brings me the yellow bin during clean up. I go ahead at that time and begin grading their page for that day. I date stamp it with one of these, then I grade it based on our standards based grading scale using this stamp. I am doing this while students clean up from centers and then they meet me at the carpet. They just know to wait quietly on the carpet until I have checked math journals. If there are incomplete problems/pages I circle them in green. Green means it has to be completed on Friday before they can have Fun Friday. Mistakes are highlighted with a yellow highlighter. I do not typically require mistakes to be fixed on Fun Friday unless it is out of character for the student or they “purposefully” bombed the entire thing. If it was a true mistake, I discuss them in small groups and we fix them together.
I have a clipboard with these weekly math station trackers on them. Each day when I check math journals, they get a check mark on that day of Independent Work if it is complete. I highlight that day if they have work to do on Fun Friday. I mark an “X” if they were excused for that day’s entry whether they were with me, with someone else, absent, etc.
Do I Record Math Journal Grades?
I do use math journals as grades. However, I don’t record them every day, I just check them to keep myself on track. At the end of a unit, I will pull all of the math journals out of folders and replace them with the new math journals. At this point, every page is already graded from my daily check so all I need to do is record the grades. If you are curious how I record grades this blog post goes into great depth on my standards based grading system.
Phew, this was so much information! Whether you are a first year teacher getting started or a veteran teacher looking to do a refresh, I hope you found this helpful. There are a lot of great links throughout this post that can help you too so be sure to check those out!
