More on Daily 5 Math

Following our Microsoft Expert Educator webinar last night, Mrs. Caldwell and I checked out #mbedchat on Twitter for some additional PD.  These weekly Wednesday night chats are archived on the Manitoba Ed Chat website for interested educators.  I found that many other teachers were interested in the Daily 5 Math activities that we are doing in Grade 1 and I referred them to my post about starting Daily 5 math last year.  I also decided that I'd share more details in this post, in hopes of helping other teachers.

Daily 5 Math in our classroom includes five different independent activities that students can do to practice their math skills while I am teaching math to small groups of students.  My aim is to provide meaningful opportunities for students to apply their math skills, engage in math thinking and have fun while I am directly teaching other students. 

The Daily 5 Math choices in our classroom include:

• Math with a Partner
• Math by Myself / Math Problem Solving
• Math Writing
• Math with Technology
• Math Practice

You can read about how we do Math with a Partner, Math Practice and Math with Technology in my original post. 

Math by Myself / Math Problem Solving:
This Daily 5 Math choice involves students working independently to solve math problems.  I create a variety of different math problems, varying in difficulty and color code them.  In our problem solving binder, each student has a 9-slot sheet filled with 9 different problems to work on. (The sheets are designed to hold trading cards and you can find them at the dollar store).   Students pick which problem to work on and glue it into their math journal.  We've already learned a variety of problem solving strategies, so students may draw a picture, use a number line, use an addition sentence, count on/count back or use manipulatives to solve the problem.  They record their work and their answer, then move on to another problem if time permits.  You can download some math story problems in my Excel template - feel free to use the problems or to create your own problems using the template.  

Math Writing:
This Daily 5 Math choice involves students writing about math.  Students can write addition or subtraction stories or model their writing after a math book. I ask that students writing math stories provide an answer for their work.  Often we will share our stories in our classroom or on our class Twitter account @MrsObachsClass and give other students the opportunity to find the answers. 

If you're a teacher thinking of starting Daily 5 math, my weekly tracker is available here for you to use.  

Daily 5 Math: Tracker Sheet

This week I designed my tracker sheet to help me monitor which Daily 5 activities students have completed throughout the week.  You can download the editable Excel file here or the ready to print PDF file here.

Daily 5 Math

I read The Daily 5 by Joan Moser & Gail Boushey this summer and my students and I have really enjoyed using their ideas in our classroom.  After working on Daily 5 literacy since September, we are starting Daily 5 math!  After an inspiring grade group meeting/sharing day in my school division, I finally had an idea of how Daily 5 math would look in my own classroom.  Our divisional consultant shared many ideas for guided math, including this guided math video by Nicki Newton. 

Last week, I worked with students to develop an anchor chart for the Daily 5 math expectations.  Then we started with two choices for Daily 5 Math - Math with Technology and Math with a Partner.  These were the first two options I introduced because they both included activities we have been doing regularly for math centers. Students already had developed stamina for these activities and were familiar with my expectations for them. 

Math with Technology
Students select online math games & activities from our Symbaloo home page, which allows them to easily find games I've introduced before and explore appropriate websites for new games to try.  They independently practice math skills such as addition, subtraction, measurement by comparison and problem solving.  Expectations have been set that we must choose a game that involves math, ensure the content is school-appropriate and make sure the game is a "good fit" - not too easy or too hard.

Math with a Partner
Students find a partner and choose a math game from a selection of games we have already learned how to play.  I have the gameboards and other materials in tubs where students can easily get them out and put them away.  Students can switch games at the completion of a game or choose to play again if time remains in that Daily 5 slot

Math Practice was introduced as a third Daily 5 math choice today.  I created booklets of practice activities for each student and we agreed upon the expectations for this Daily 5 choice.  We decided that it was important to use pencil and to remove sheets from the booklet to hand in only when both sides were complete.  We also talked about what to do if a student could not read the directions independently and decided that we'd try asking a friend (and a 2nd friend if needed) then choose a different page if still "stuck".  We agreed that students could come to me after I was done working with my small group to get help with instructions so that they could complete that activity at another time. Our first practice today went very well  :)

Since my students were already really good at Daily 5 for literacy, they are doing great with Daily 5 math and I looking forward to having more time to work with small groups of students on important math concepts!  Next up will be introducing more of the 5 choices & ensuring students are able to practice independently while I teach others...