December BUILD Math Stations

What am I even doing trying to pretend like I have any good ideas the week before Christmas break.

HA!

Really, though.

 Even though I feel like I pretty much already do B.U.I.L.D. in some sense.

What am I talking about? Build is a concept that follows along the same lines as Daily 5, but for math.

B-Buddy Games

U- Using Manipulatives

I- Independent Reading

L- Learning About Numbers

D- Doing Math

To keep myself on track, I created a December Math Station unit that is based on this concept. There are two activities for each acronym. I am planning on keeping this going to each month so I can keep myself on track.

One buddy game I have is called “Sugar”. The students have a pile of cards in the middle that have various numbers and math facts. The first person to collect 10 cards and correctly name whatever is on the card is the winner. If they draw “sugar”, then that have to put all of their cards back in the pile. You can make this game as differentiated as you want. You can put all of the cards in the middle or you can be selective.

For Using Manipulatives, I had the students get out patter blocks and build a Christmas tree. Once they followed the pattern, I asked them to start replacing them with other shapes. There is also a recording page that goes along with this activity.

I also used mini erasers as counters for an activity called “Tinsel Ten-Frame” I put the pages in a page protector and gave students expo markers to write. Each card had either a stocking, reindeer or tree on it. Students had to write the corresponding number in the box with the matching pictures. Then, they built that number using the erasers on a ten frame. After they did those two steps, they had to count how many more they would need to make 10. If you don’t have any thematic counters, I have some in the unit that you can use.

I  know that many teacher put books in the stations for “Independent Reading”. However, I think with the age group of our kids, we just need them to be held accountable. I had them create their own mini-counting book. It was still reading, but they had to complete a task. The book was out of order and they

Learning about numbers (to me at least) is anything that has to do with strengthening number sense. Counting by 2’s and 5’s is always a tough concept for students to master so we always have a lot of practice with it. There are counting cards and two differentiated recording pages.

Anything that you use for “D” is a station that can be done without any extra assistance. Most of the time, it is just review. Today, the students worked on addition facts and counting strategies.

Be on the look-out for more Math BUILD units in the future 🙂

P.S. This is on sale for the remainder of the week!