Morning Math Work and a Limited Time Freebie!

Happy Aloha Friday!! 

Today I will be sharing with you a little about the morning math work my students do each day. I have found that word problems have always been a struggle for students when they come up to me in 3rd grade. I feel this is a skill that needs to be taught, practiced, reinforced and discussed daily in order for students to become truly proficient. After my first year of teaching, I decided that I would start giving my students daily word problems. I felt that it was a great way to reinforce and review skills that were taught earlier in the year and help prepare them for state testing. 

I have been giving my students morning math for the past 3 years. Each morning they have 2-3 problems a day to work on once all of their morning procedures are taken care of. Some of the problems are word problems, others involve time, money, place value, rounding, etc. I originally started with just word problems but over the years have added in other skills to help keep it fresh in their minds. 

Towards the ending of each day, we take the time to go over and correct each of the problems for that day. The great thing about it is that it is all student led. There will be a student volunteer who goes up to the front of the class, reads the problem aloud, then shares their thinking out loud about the information they knew and how they went about solving. Once they have explained the process to the rest of the class, the other students have the opportunity to ask any questions. I LOVE this part. Sometimes there are students who just don't get why they needed to choose a certain operation, or why you needed to regroup when subtracting....it is the responsibility of the student up front to explain. In the beginning this is rough because it is a learned process...but with guidance, by the ending of the year they are totally little teachers telling others how it's done! While this is happening, I am able to hear the academic vocabulary and know which students truly understand the concepts by how they are re-teaching. Sometimes I am amazed and learn a new way of explaining things! 

Each student has their own morning math folder. At the beginning of each month, I just go an add the sheets to the front of their folder.

The beginning of the year, we review second grade standards. The students are also started off with only 2 problems  so that they can get used to the routines and process of these morning review sheets. After about the first month, they get used to the 2 problems and are able to do 3 in about the same amount of time. 

Over the years I have spent quite a bit of time aligning the questions to Common Core as well as playing around with the 'look' of our morning math. I wish I had a picture of my very first set...which was in Comic Sans, nothing fancy..just numbers. It then got pretty much the same look as now but with all DJ Inkers fonts and clipart. When I got into blogging and TPT last year, I decided that I would make it a project to fix them up by the months to share with you all on TPT.  Since I can't use DJ Inkers in my TPT products, it has taken me awhile to revamp..but I am happy to say that I am just about done! I am also getting ready to bundle up all 10 months to share with you all. 

For now...I have my December set available for you for FREE for a limited time. 

Head to my TPT Store to pick it up. If you do decide to download, I would totally love if you left some feedback! 

I've also been inspired by my fellow Hawaiian Blogger Friends to start up a Facebook for my little ol' blog. I'm still learning how to use it but would love if you headed on over to give me a 'like' :)