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.