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Kindergarten Math Assessments

Kindergarten math assessments were always such a headache for me. I tried so many different ways of assessing and had a hard time finding a way that would work for these young kids, while also being accurate. It’s very different assessing a kindergartener who knows the math skill but can’t read the problem than a student who doesn’t understand the math skill.

Hopefully these math assessment ideas will help you come up with a way to accurately assess your students while sparing you the headache I had!

Kindergarten math assessments can be tricky. It's very different assessing a kindergartener who knows the math skill but can't read the problem than a...

Math Assessments in Kindergarten

If you’re a kindergarten teacher, you already know how short a kindergartener’s attention span is. It’s unlikely that you’ll be able to give whole group, unit tests that are more than one page. I tried this and had very small class sizes and it still was a nightmare. There’s always one or two (or five) that are off in lalaland, not paying attention to what problem you’re on in the math test or just looking at their neighbors paper to pretend they’re following along.

It’s also very unlikely that you’ll be able to give one on one assessments for every standard to every student. There are too many other things teachers and students do throughout the day to give that much time and attention to math assessments.

Which brings me to exit tickets. Exit tickets are short one or two problem, half sheets of paper that are ideally given after every lesson. They are quick and simple so students can focus on the task before losing attention. There is only one set of directions for students to solve either one or two problems that go along with what they learned during the lesson.

When you give an exit ticket, you get immediate feedback. That way, you can pull whatever students did not understand the skill and work more closely with them during the next lesson. That immediate feedback helps you know what students you need to work one on one with. Most likely you won’t be able to work one on one with everyone for every standard.

Kindergarten math assessments can be tricky. It's very different assessing a kindergartener who knows the math skill but can't read the problem than a...

Beginning of the Year Assessments

Kindergarteners come to you at so many different levels. Depending on if they went to preschool or not, you may be teaching some how to count, while others are ready to start adding and subtracting.

Something super helpful that I did was assess their math skills right in the beginning of the year. That helped me figure out who was at what level and where I should place them when we started guided math.

These are the skills I assessed in the beginning of the year:

  • Counting
  • Writing numbers
  • Identify Shapes

Kindergarten math assessments can be tricky. It's very different assessing a kindergartener who knows the math skill but can't read the problem than a...

During the Year

You already know that it’s important to assess students throughout the year. We had report cards 4 times a year, so although I was formatively assessing students every day, I had specific assessments I did before completing report cards.

Some ideas for kindergarten math assessments during the year:

  • Exit tickets – Give an exit ticket after every (or mostly every) lesson to gage student skills. This will tell you when they master the concept.
  • Quarterly verbal math assessments (for standards like – can count to 100)
  • Take parts of the end of chapter or end of unit tests that the teacher manual provides and give certain problems throughout the quarter or year
  • Use guided math in your classroom so you can easily formatively assess students when they’re at your group. Write down these observations in a checklist.

End of the Year Assessments

At the end of the year, to get a comprehensive understanding on what concepts students have mastered, I re-assess standards that certain students did not understand the first time I assessed. (Of course, you teach concepts over and over and over but sometimes students just take a little longer to fully grasp a concept.)

So, at the end of the year, I looked at my assessment binder, where I held all my check lists and exit tickets and I marked off who needed to be assessed for which standard. Usually there are only a few students in each standard (depending on your class size) who need to be re-assessed.

 

Kindergarten math assessments can be tricky. It's very different assessing a kindergartener who knows the math skill but can't read the problem than a...

Standards Based Grading

Standards based grading is simply when students get “graded” on if they meet a standard or not instead of getting a letter grade in different subjects. When I taught, we used standard based grading so students earned W’s for working on a standard. They earned M’s for meets standard. E’s meant they exceed the standard or N’s for not at grade level.

Here’s how I assessed for standards based grading while using guided math!

Common Core Math Assessments

If you are interested in using exit tickets in your classroom, you can purchase exit tickets for the entire year for all Kindergarten Common Core Standards in my TpT Store.

Getting Familiar with the Kindergarten Common Core Standards

The common core standards have been adopted in most of the states in the US. These standards tell us what students should be able to do by the end of the year. The standards are used from kindergarten through high school. Therefore, they build on each other year after year in hopes that once students graduate high school, they’re prepared for college, a career and life.

As kindergarten teachers, it’s our job to digest the standards and then teach students what they need to know. That way, students master each kindergarten common core standard by the end of the year.

Common Core in Kindergarten

Kindergarten is very different now from when I was in kindergarten. Students are asked to master many different skills that you may be surprised by when you first take a look at the standards. However, students can and do learn these year after year. The kindergarten common core standards set a strong foundation for all students will learn throughout their schooling.

This post breaks down all you need to know about the kindergarten common core standards. What they are, how to teach them and resources to use.

Kindergarten Common Core Math Standards

There are 5 categories in kindergarten Common Core Math Standards:

  1. Counting and Cardinality
  2. Operations and Algebraic Thinking
  3. Number and Operations in Base Ten
  4. Measurement and Data
  5. Geometry

Let’s take a deeper look

Counting and Cardinality: Students learn about numbers and how to count in order and they also compare numbers.

Operations and Algebraic Thinking: Students learn how to add and subtract.

Number and Operations in Base Ten: Students learn place value and how to compose and decompose teen numbers.

Measurement and Data: Students learn how to measure objects using standard and non-standard units. They put similar objects in categories.

Geometry: Students learn names of shapes, identify and compare shapes.

This post breaks down all you need to know about the kindergarten common core standards. What they are, how to teach them and resources to use.

Kindergarten Common Core Language Arts Standards

There are 6 sections in the kindergarten Common Core language arts standards.

  1. Reading: Literature
  2. Reading: Informational Text
  3. Foundational Skills
  4. Writing
  5. Speaking and Listening
  6. Language

Let’s take a deeper look

Reading Literature: Students are introduced to a variety of different types of books and stories. They learn about different parts of a story and are able to explain them.

Reading Informational Text: Students are introduced to non-fiction books and stories. They learn to find the main idea and key details in the story.

Reading Foundational Skills: Students learn concept of print, phonics and phonemic awareness. Students learn sight words and practice reading with fluency.

Writing: Students use drawings, words and sentences to write different types of stories.

Speaking and Listening: Students participate in multiple conversations with different people. They ask questions when they don’t understand something and they present ideas and concepts they do understand.

Language: Students begin learning conventions of Standard English and are introduced to and begin to use a variety of new vocabulary.

This post breaks down all you need to know about the kindergarten common core standards. What they are, how to teach them and resources to use.

Common Core Curriculum

Many curriculum companies updated their teacher guides and student materials to follow the Common Core Standards. You can also find a lot of curriculum that follows the standards on Teachers Pay Teachers and other similar websites.

Some of the resources I offer that coincide with the Common Core Standards:

Math:

Kindergarten Common Core Math Assessments for the YEAR BUNDLE

Math Games for Kids – Access to ALL Current and Future Math Games

Language Arts:

3 Star Coloring – A Beginning of the Year Writing Lesson

Letter Sounds and Rhyming Words Word Work Center

Common Core Website

To read more about the Common Core Standards or see all the grade levels in full, visit http://www.corestandards.org/

 

Do you use Common Core Standards at your school?

My 4 Favorite Kindergarten Apps

Using digital resources in your classroom can be very valuable if you have the tools needed to do this. My school is lucky enough to have iPads. We have one iPad cart that we share between kindergarten, first grade and second grade. However, we pretty much can use the iPads at any time because we have a small school.

It can be hard to find the right apps for kindergarten, especially before they can even read! That’s why, I’ve created this list of my 4 favorite kindergarten apps. These will hopefully help you out when you decide what digital resources you want to include in your classroom.

Have a kindergarten app you use and love in your classroom? Comment with the name and a little about it below. I love learning about new apps and trying them out in my classroom!

Do you use technology in your classroom? I use iPads in mine and have found 4 awesome apps to use with my kindergarteners! Check them out. Freebie included!

Reading Apps

Raz-Kids

This app is my favorite reading app because you can input the student’s reading level and the app provides books at that level. Students can listen to reading or read it on their own. When they listen to the book, the app highlights the word as it’s being read. This is great for learning sight words or new vocabulary words. Once students have listened to the book and read through every story on their own, it gives them new books!

Math Apps

Freckle

This is an app that I’m still learning as well. However, I am loving it so far! It is a math app that allows the teacher to put in certain lessons or standards you want students to work on. Students can see that they have an activity from the teacher from the red circle next to the math app. (This app can also be used in reading but I’ve only used the math portion.) Students can also explore different math contents on their own (but at their level). My students love this app!

Daisy the Dinosaur

This is a coding app! Students program Daisy the Dinosaur to do different things and move in different ways! This is an app I let students use when they have free time on the iPad. I haven’t incorporated it into our regular curriculum yet.

Learning Apps (All Subjects)

ABC Mouse

ABC Mouse is probably my students favorite app! This app has tons of games, puzzles, coloring, music and much more! This app includes all subjects which is one of the reasons I love it too! When we do ABC Mouse, I just let students go and explore whatever they feel like exploring. You put in their grade level when you set up your classroom, so it’s all grade appropriate.

Do you use technology in your classroom? I use iPads in mine and have found 4 awesome apps to use with my kindergarteners! Check them out. Freebie included!

My students love using iPads and exploring these apps during our class time. I’m always trying to find other apps teachers are loving to add to my list of favorite apps. If you have a favorite, drop the name and a little about it below!

Essential Beginning of the Year Assessments in Kindergarten

Assessments are crucial when beginning the year (especially in Kindergarten) because students come to your class at so many different levels. Some students know how to read and write already whereas other students might not know the alphabet or their numbers yet.

I like to assess my students in the first few weeks so I know where their baseline is. I like to look at the assessments from the beginning of the year to gauge what they’ve learned when I do mid-year assessments and end of the year assessments.

The assessments you do in the beginning of the year will help you determine your small groups during guided reading and guided math.

Beginning of the year assessments are crucial in getting to know your students levels and when starting small groups. Freebie assessment included!

Essential Beginning of the Year Assessments

Letter Recognition and Letter Sounds

This is the first assessment I do with students as it is so important to know if you have a group that knows letters and sounds or if you have a group that needs to be explicitly taught each letter and sound. I’ve found that each year is different. Some years, I’ve been able to quickly go over letters and sounds with the entire group and teach letters and sounds more thoroughly during small groups to my struggling students. Other years, I’ve had to majorly slow down and spend significant class time going over each letter and what sound it makes.

The assessment I use is a freebie in my store! I pull students one on one and directly ask them the letter (both uppercase and lowercase) and sound.

Reading

My school uses Fountas and Pinnell for our reading assessments. After I assess all students knowledge on letters and sounds, I assess students, who have shown they know majority of the letters and sounds, on their reading. This system works for me as I’ve found that if students don’t know their letters or the sounds, they don’t know how to read. It saves me time and it saves them from giving me blank, questioning stares when I ask them to give it their best shot at what the page says.

As I mentioned, we use Fountas and Pinnell but if you school doesn’t use this or doesn’t have a reading program, there are many options available on TpT. Just search – reading assessments for __ grade.

You may be interested in my guided reading bundle when you start using your assessments to form guided reading groups!

Math

To assess your students in math, your math program may have a beginning of the year assessment. You may also be interested in my beginning of the year math assessments freebie. I like to assess students on their number identification, if they can write numbers, if they can count/ how high they can count and shape identification.

These math assessments help me when forming our first guided math groups.

Everything You Need to Know to Launch Guided Math in Your Classroom

How to Write Differentiated Lesson Plans to Use During Guided Math

How to Assess Student Learning During Guided Math (Standards Based Grading)

What assessments do you use in the beginning of the year?

All Your Guided Math Questions Answered: A Collaborative Post with Sam Ripley

I am so excited to share this post because I’ve been collaborating with an amazing teacher, Sam Ripley. Sam and I met on Instagram through a comment pod and realized we share the same enthusiasm for using guided math in our classrooms. She’s a fourth grade teacher in North Carolina who teaches full-time, creates for TpT and runs a blog. Visit her blog Fantastically Fourth Grade for other teacher inspiration.

Once we found out how much each other values guided math, we decided we wanted to get together and answer any questions about this teaching strategy. We’re a good duo because she has an upper elementary view-point, where I have the lower elementary. Although we teach very different ages, it’s interesting to see that much of the way we implement guided math is very similar! I hope this Q&A answers all the questions you have and helps you feel confident starting guided math in your own classroom!

Have you heard about guided math but still have some unanswered questions? This Guided Math Q&A post will answer all your questions and give you the confidence to begin using this amazing teaching strategy in your classroom.

Q&A

What does your rotation schedule look like?

Danielle (lower elementary): During our guided math time, I start with a 5 – 10 minute introduction of what we’ll be doing in math that day. I only briefly state what the objective is as they’ll get direct instruction when they meet with me. I also explain the workbook page for the “At Your Seat” station and tell them the game for “Hands On”. If it’s a new game, I introduce that here. Then, I dismiss students to go to their center. For 15 minutes I meet with a group while the other groups are independently working. After 15 minutes is up, I’ll meet with another group for 15 minutes and the other groups switch centers as well. My centers spell out M.A.T.H. M – Meet with Teacher, A – At Your Seat, T – Technology and H – Hands On. I meet with two groups a day, so I each lesson takes two days.

Have you heard about guided math but still have some unanswered questions? This Guided Math Q&A post will answer all your questions and give you the confidence to begin using this amazing teaching strategy in your classroom.

Sammie (upper elementary): I start with a 15-20 minute whole group mini-lesson that introduces the topic for the day or reviews the topic that we have been learning about.  Then, we have 4 different rotations that are 12-18 minutes each depending on the group and depending on how long the mini-lesson was. I use the M.A.T.H. acronym for my rotations.  M is for Math Facts and I often use this rotation as a review rotation. A is for At Your Seat and this rotation I use for students to practice the skill being taught that day. T is for Teacher and this is when they meet with me to learn the skill.  H is for Hands On and I normally use this rotation for technology but sometimes will throw in a hands on game instead. The order of the rotations doesn’t matter as much. The only one I think matters is having the students go to the “At Their Seat” Rotation after the “Teacher” rotation.  This way students can practice the skill they learned in the group with me. One additional thing about my schedule is that I meet with groups in the first 3 rotations and use the 4th rotation to pull a group for remediation or check the “At Your Seat” activity. This has been so helpful but it would depend on the amount of students in your class.  You may need all 4 rotations to meet with groups if you have more students.

Do you have a schedule for the students to see the rotations?

Danielle (lower elementary): I do have a schedule that students can look at to see where they’re going, however, I tell them where their group goes each time we start and when we switch. This schedule is displayed on the whiteboard at the front of the room.

Have you heard about guided math but still have some unanswered questions? This Guided Math Q&A post will answer all your questions and give you the confidence to begin using this amazing teaching strategy in your classroom.

Sammie (upper elementary):  Yes, I hang up a schedule on the wall, but have also put a schedule up on the Smartboard before too.  I use the M.A.T.H. Acronym for my rotation schedule and shapes for my groups. The less sides on the shape, the less help they need.  This makes it harder for students to figure out group! Each of my students have numbers and I put their numbers under the group that they are in that day.  This makes it easy to move students when they need to be moved to another group. These are displayed on cabinets in my classroom that are easy for students to see.

Have you heard about guided math but still have some unanswered questions? This Guided Math Q&A post will answer all your questions and give you the confidence to begin using this amazing teaching strategy in your classroom.

How do you manage math rotations with a large group of students?

Danielle (lower elementary): I only have 15 students in my current class, so it’s hard for me to answer this question however, if you set high expectations and hold your class to them, centers can work with any number of kids. You may want to add a few more centers instead of just using the M.A.T.H. acronym and having four centers. That way, groups don’t get too large.

Sammie (upper elementary): I believe that Guided Math groups are possible with any number of students.  The most important part is teaching your students the rules and routines immediately and sticking to them.  At the beginning of the year, I am not in a rotation right away as I want to float and help students learn the routine of Guided Math.  This definitely helps with the management of groups and especially large groups. Also, it is important that you do not leave your students down time.  This tends to be when they goof around and they get out of the routine. One more thing that has helped me with bigger groups, is having different spots in the room for each rotation.  This helps spread students out a little more and giving more movement in the rotations.

Have you heard about guided math but still have some unanswered questions? This Guided Math Q&A post will answer all your questions and give you the confidence to begin using this amazing teaching strategy in your classroom.

What does your first group do for their At Their Seat rotation when they have not had instruction from the teacher yet?

Danielle (lower elementary): When I begin guided math, I introduce what we’ll be learning in math that day and then I explain the workbook page or pages that students will do at their seat. A lot of our math concepts are reviewed over and over in our math program, so often the pages don’t need a lot of explaining. If I think that a page from our workbook would be too hard for students to just go do on their own, I have them bring their workbook when they meet with me and after I teach the skill, they work on it at my table so I can help when they need it. When this happens, I give students something else to do “At Their Seat”.  

Sammie (upper elementary): I always meet last with my highest group. So, they are the first group to have the At Their Seat Rotation.  This group normally doesn’t need as much help with the skill. I always tell them to try it and when they meet with me in the last rotation, we go over at least some of their At Their Seat practice/ activity.  Also, I differentiate the At Their Seat rotation. If it is a completely new skill, then I can give this group something review or something that we have already learned that may link to our new skill to do at this rotation.

Have you heard about guided math but still have some unanswered questions? This Guided Math Q&A post will answer all your questions and give you the confidence to begin using this amazing teaching strategy in your classroom.

Do you do math rotations every day?

Danielle (lower elementary): I do guided math Monday through Thursday. I split each lesson into two days because I meet with 2 groups a day and I have 3 groups total. On Fridays, we do math games that reinforce the concept we’ve learned that week or a previous concept we’ve learned. I also don’t do them on weird weeks like a holiday week or a short week where our schedules get all mixed up because of extra school events that are going on.

Sammie (upper elementary): Most days, but there are exceptions like testing days, review days and sometimes introduction days.  I love to review with whole class math games. So, sometimes at the end of a unit, I will not do math rotations the last day or two before the test to play a whole group math game.  Also, occasionally, I will start a new skill with a whole group lesson instead of math rotations if I feel like there is an activity or lesson that is best taught as a whole group. Overall, I stick to the math rotations daily to keep the routine and my students really do enjoy math lessons more when we do math rotations!

Have you heard about guided math but still have some unanswered questions? This Guided Math Q&A post will answer all your questions and give you the confidence to begin using this amazing teaching strategy in your classroom.

Now it’s my turn to ask… Do you feel confident to start using guided math in your classroom?

I hope this post answered all your questions about guided math so you can begin using this amazing teaching strategy in your classroom. If you still have questions, please leave them in the comments so we can answer them. If you’re interested in other guided math blog posts, you can find lower elementary and upper elementary links below. Enjoy!

Lower Elementary Guided Math Resources:

Everything You Need to Know to Launch Guided Math in Your Classroom

How to Write Differentiated Lesson Plans to Use During Guided Math

Guided Math Centers: What are students doing when they’re not meeting with me?

How to Assess Student Learning During Guided Math (Standards Based Grading)

Upper Elementary Guided Math Resources:

3 Easy and Quick Differentiation Ideas for Math Rotations

Keeping Track and Using Data in Math Rotations

5 Math Rotation TPT Stores you Must Check Out

How to Assess Student Learning During Guided Math (Standards Based Grading)

As a kindergarten teacher, I’ve struggled with how to assess my students. We use standards based grades for our report cards so students get an “M” for meets standard, “W” for working toward standard or an “E” or “N” for exceeds or not at grade level. This has always been tricky for me because I never knew the best way to assess for these standards. I felt like each year, I would try something different, and I would end up scrambling during report card time to ultimately assess each student one on one.

I struggle because I can’t just give a kindergartener a stapled packet test and tell them to go. (If you’ve ever tried to give a kindergartener a test, you know what I’m talking about!) And, as much as it’s nice to assess students one on one, I hated feeling like I was scrambling to assess and then get grades in on time. Finally, after 4 years in my kindergarten classroom and playing around with different ways of assessing, I’ve found an assessment strategy that works for me and my kindergarteners. And the best part is that it fits into my guided math schedule!

Are you stuck on how to assess your students during guided math? Check out this post to read about the way I assess my kids. Included in this post is a FREEBIE that will get you started with your own assessments!

How to Assess Student Learning During Guided Math

Exit Tickets

After I teach a lesson in guided math (I take two days per lesson, read more about my guided math schedule here) I give my students a one or two question exit ticket. This is just a quick assessment of what we’ve just learned, that students can complete in a couple minutes. This gives me an idea of who has mastered the standard and who still needs some support. This is also an easy way to assess kindergarteners because there’s only one direction.

Assessment Binder

I organize my exit tickets in a binder that is organized by standard. Each time I give an exit ticket, I put all the students who still need support with the particular standard on top and the students who have mastered the skill underneath. That way, I can quickly look at the stack of exit tickets and know who needs more support when we visit the standard again or when it comes to report card time.

Standards Checklist

Most of the kindergarten standards can be assessed through my exit tickets, however, some are just easier aloud. For these standards, I created a checklist with each student’s name and a box for the standard. When the end of the quarter is near, I pull students one on one (or my assistant teacher helps me) and assess them aloud.

How do you assess your students for math? Any kinder teachers have strategies that helps them assess based on standards? Comment below!

For more about guided math…

Everything You Need to Know to Launch Guided Math in Your Classroom

How to Write Differentiated Lesson Plans to Use During Guided Math

Guided Math Centers: What are students doing when they’re not meeting with me?

Guided Math Centers: What are students doing when they’re not meeting with me?

Guided math is one of my favorite times to teach. I love that students (even in kindergarten) can be independent while navigating through different centers. Meeting with students and tailoring lessons to their levels is so important and I love that I can reach more learners by using small groups. But what do students do when they’re not meeting with me? Read on, to check out the guided math centers in my classroom.

You might want to read my other guided math posts…

Everything You Need to Know to Launch Guided Math in Your Classroom

How to Write Differentiated Lesson Plans to Use During Guided Math

Want to know what students are doing during guided math when they're not meeting with the teacher? Check this post out for the other centers incorporated in guided math. FREEBIE included!

Guided Math Centers: What are students doing when they’re not meeting with me?

I use the M.A.T.H. acronym for our guided math schedule.

M – Meet with Teacher

A – At your Seat

T – Technology

H – Hands On

You can read about what students are doing when they meet with me here.

A – At Your Seat

While students are at their seats, they complete their workbook pages or worksheets I find appropriate for whatever we’re learning. This is where I just use the curriculum we have. (We have Math Expressions.)

T – Technology

During the technology center, students have the choice of 4 different math apps that students play on iPads.

Their choices are:

  • Lola’s Math
  • Lola’s Math 2
  • Animal Math
  • Kids Learn Maths

These are all free!

Want to know what students are doing during guided math when they're not meeting with the teacher? Check this post out for the other centers incorporated in guided math. FREEBIE included!

H – Hands On

When students get to the hands on station, they get to play math games! I like to choose the math game they’ll play because I like to put out a game that connects with whatever skill we’re learning. I get my math games from TpT.

Check out my math game membership available in my TpT store! This membership will include all the math games I create (games I’ve already created and future games I create).

Want to know what students are doing during guided math when they're not meeting with the teacher? Check this post out for the other centers incorporated in guided math. FREEBIE included!

How to Write Differentiated Lesson Plans to Use During Guided Math

When I first started using guided math in my classroom, I was a bit overwhelmed thinking of all the lesson plans I would have to create to tailor lessons to each group. Now that I’ve used this teaching tactic in my classroom for almost a year, I’m here to tell you it’s not as intimidating as you may think! This post will help when writing your differentiated lesson plans to use when students meet with you.

Do you want to use guided math in your classroom but don't know how to write differentiated lesson plans? Use these tips when creating the perfect plan for your differentiated groups.

Planning Process

At the beginning of the year, I sat down with my teacher guide (we use Math Expressions) and my computer. I opened a spreadsheet and basically wrote out a pacing guide of where we should be during which week of the school year so I would hit every topic. I cover between 2 – 4 lessons in a week and often combine different parts of different lessons. Remember a teaching guide is just a guide. You need to hit the standards, not every part of every lesson.

Once I broke down the year and planned where we should be and when, I made it easier for myself to plan each week of the year. Now when I plan, I plan specific lessons for each week and refer to my yearly plan for what content I need to cover.

When I plan our weekly math lessons, I first look at the goal of what I want students to be able to do and then I tweak the lesson based on the group of students I’ll be working with.

Do you want to use guided math in your classroom but don't know how to write differentiated lesson plans? Use these tips when creating the perfect plan for your differentiated groups.

Meet With Teacher

I use the M.A.T.H. acronym for my guided math schedule. Read about the acronym and how to launch guided math through this post.

The way I differentiate is through this meeting time with my small groups. I have three groups (low, on level, high) and meet with each group twice a week.

How to Plan with Differentiation

The best part about using guided math in the classroom is being able to meet all your students needs by tailoring your lessons to their level. I do this by planning exactly what I’ll be doing in each group. When I look at a lesson, I write down the standard being covered and what I want them to be able to do.

Then, I look at what the lesson suggests on how to teach whatever concept is being taught. For my lowest group, I do a lot of hand holding. We go over each step together and practice again and again until I feel like the group can try one on their own. For my on level group, I do one or two problems with them and then give them a chance to try multiple on their own. My high group usually only needs me to explain what we’re doing and then I can give them the freedom to complete problems on their own while I observe and step in when I need to.

I also differentiate for each group by adding a little complexity to whatever concept we’re learning. See the example below for a better idea of how I add complexity to each group. A key idea about differentiation is that you tweak the learning to add rigor, not add more work.

An Example

Do you want to use guided math in your classroom but don't know how to write differentiated lesson plans? Use these tips when creating the perfect plan for your differentiated groups.

Have you tried guided math in your classroom? Leave a question you have about guided math below!

Everything You Need to Know to Launch Guided Math in Your Classroom

Ever since I started using guided reading to teach reading, I knew that I wanted to switch up my whole group math lessons to use a similar approach. I love the way guided reading allows me to group students by similar abilities so I can tailor lessons to their strengths and weaknesses. The value in this teaching strategy is immense compared to teaching a whole group lesson to the “average” student. No two students learn the same, can do the same things or even struggle the same. This is why, I took the plunge and tried out guided math in my classroom.

Since I’ve been teaching guided reading for a few years, I knew the concept of taking a lesson and tailoring it to a group’s needs. What I didn’t realize is how much work it would be for math. I could go on and on about many difference aspects of guided math and building lessons for each of your groups, and I will, but this will be in separate posts. In this post, I want to give you the basics you need to launch guided math in your own classroom.

Before I get started… I’m sure there are tons of ways to go about using guided math in your classroom. This is what worked for me. Use it, use part of it, tweak it, I’m here to help you in your classroom so make it work for you!

Have you wanted to start guided math in your classroom but don't know where to start? Check out this post for everything you need to know when launching guided math.

All You Need to Know About Launching Guided Math in Your Classroom

Schedule

I split each lesson into two days. On the first day of the lesson, I introduce the skill, teach a mini-lesson and explain each station for the lesson. This takes about 15 minutes and then I spend another 30 minutes meeting with two groups. On the second day, my students jump straight into the stations, 15 minutes per station. I meet with one group and then during the second 15 minute chunk, I walk around and make sure students are understanding the concept while they’re at the other stations.

I’m able to split each lesson into two days because we use the program Math Expressions and a lot of my lessons are repetitive. When I’m planning the unit, I look for which lessons I can combine and what I can pull that’s important from each of the lessons I’m combining. I also look at what has been tricky for students in the past and where I should slow down so we can really master the skill.

For my schedule, I use the acronym M.A.T.H.

M- Meet with the Teacher
A- At Your Seat
T- Technology
H- Hands On

How to Group Your Students

Before each unit, I make a short pre-assessment that resembles the end of unit test. This gives me an idea of who has some prior knowledge (these are the kids I can challenge), who needs to be taught from the beginning (these are the middle of the road students) and who needs some extra support in order to get to the starting point (my lower level group).

Have you wanted to start guided math in your classroom but don't know where to start? Check out this post for everything you need to know when launching guided math.

Once I assess my students using the pre-assessment, I put them into three groups. My circle group is my low students, triangle is middle and square, high. These groups can change each unit based on the skill we’ll be learning. Some students come with some prior knowledge of one math content area but not another, which is one of the reasons why I give these assessments, so that the groups can change if need be.

Materials

Guided math can require a lot of materials but in general, my favorite math manipulatives have been our number tiles, tens and ones cubes, and counting tiles. This will be different depending on your grade level, but in kindergarten, we use these three math materials the most. (Mine come with my program, but you can find similar materials on Amazon.)

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Differentiated Lessons

Differentiation happens primarily when they meet with me in our small group. This is the time when I can break the concept down and support my lower learners, teach the concept and push my middle learners and challenge my higher learners. Now, I can probably go on forever about ways I differentiate my lessons, and I will in another post, but let me tell you the basis of how I differentiate my lessons.

When I sit down to plan our math time, I look at the concept I want my students to learn. Then, I look for ways I can tweak the lesson. I also look for ways that I can make our lesson more hands on.

Have you wanted to start guided math in your classroom but don't know where to start? Check out this post for everything you need to know when launching guided math.

For my lower group, I look for ways I can do it with them. We often go way slower than my other groups because it takes these kids a bit longer. When I work with my middle group, I let them take a little more control of their learning and only step in when they need some support. With my higher level kids, I give them the freedom to try the skill on their own. I also look for ways I can challenge them. Sometimes, I have them create their own problems and challenge each other. These simple changes to the lesson can have a real impact on a student, whatever level they are.

Will You Try Guided Math in Your Classroom?

Guided math has been such a great addition to my classroom and I completely recommend this teaching strategy to any teachers willing to jump in. I’ve seen more growth in my student’s math skills and they’re excited for our math time.

Do you use guided math? Tell me what works best during your guided math time. Don’t use guided math? Tell me what’s stopping you or if you have any questions. Comment below!

You may be interested in…

Why You Should be Differentiating in Your Classroom

How to Create the Perfect Guided Reading Lesson

Check out the math games I’ve created on my TpT Store!

Tips for Using Interactive Notebooks in Kindergarten

I love seeing all the creative ways teachers use interactive notebooks in their classrooms but I’ve always felt that they’re more for older students because of all the different pieces and specific places to glue. (If you’ve ever used glue with kindergarten, you know what I’m talking about – total mess!) But this year, I was determined to make interactive notebooks work for my kindergarten class. For my first interactive notebook experience, I chose to use them in science however, these tips would work in any subject!

Want to use interactive notebooks but stuck with getting started? Check out these tips to using interactive notebooks in a kindergarten classroom.

Tips to Making Interactive Notebooks Work in Kindergarten

Setting Up Your Interactive Notebooks

  • Use a full-page label sheet to for the front cover. (This tip comes from Ashley at Teach Create Motivate.) I designed my cover to say Science Notebook with two scientists and a place for students to write their name. When I was ready to put these covers on my student’s notebooks, I printed them on these full-page labels which you put in your printer just like a regular paper. Then I trimmed the sides to fit and stuck it on the front, just like a giant sticker!
  • Glue a front cover for every unit or sub topic. My science curriculum has multiple units so each unit has different cover inside the notebook and that’s how we know everything after that cover page belongs to that unit. Some teachers use tabs to separate units or subtopics. I don’t do this because once we’re done with a science unit we don’t come back to it so there’s no need for students to tab back.

Want to use interactive notebooks but stuck with getting started? Check out these tips to using interactive notebooks in a kindergarten classroom.

General Tips

  • Trim the actual interactive notebook pages that go in the notebook. This makes one less step for students and saves a ton of time!
  • Give your students one page at a time. If you give them the background page plus any other pages where you need to cut and glue or fold, things get jumbled and at least one kiddo is going to cut something that shouldn’t be cut.

Want to use interactive notebooks but stuck with getting started? Check out these tips to using interactive notebooks in a kindergarten classroom.

 

  • Model, model, model! Of course this goes for literally everything in kindergarten but especially for the tricky interactive notebook pages.
  • Help your students find the next page. You wouldn’t believe how many interactive notebook pages I’ve had to pull out because a student just opened his notebook and plopped it down wherever it opened.

Want to use interactive notebooks but stuck with getting started? Check out these tips to using interactive notebooks in a kindergarten classroom.

Although interactive notebooks can be tricky to navigate with the younger students, it’s totally possible with these tips and tricks! What would you add to this list?

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