Swimming Through The Year With MissThresher: Guided Math Rotations

I hope you all had an enjoyable weekend!!! They just go so fast!

I watched my first EVER class make their first Holy Communion on Sunday!

I was definitely a proud teacher!

It doesn’t matter they are no longer in my class - they will always have a special place in my heart!

When it comes for them to graduate in two years I will just be a blubbering mess!

Guided Math Rotations

We have been continuing our work on shapes this week and I thought this would be a great chance to talk about Math rotations!!!

We started out well this year with Maths rotations but as the term went on it started to fall away as we just got so busy. This week we had a go at starting it up again - it was painful but I honestly feel it will be worth it in the long run!

I use BUILD rotations - you can find lots of blogs to explain it better. I like it because it helps me plan different experiences based on a maths concepts basically BUILD stands for:

B - Buddy Games

U - Using Manipulatives

I - Independent Work

L - Learning about numbers

D - Doing math

Below is a copy of how my rotations work - I also added a teacher rotation. We do two rotations a day over three days as the other two days we have a longer warm up.

As I have said we continued on with shapes!

Even though it is not in the year two curriculum I know my class was ready and capable at looking at what a polygon was!

They really loved it and now when my students write me messages or draw me pictures they are constantly commenting on if they have drawn a polygon.

My BUILD rotations this week consisted of activities from my new Shape it Up packet you can purchase from TPT.

B: Polygon sort

As a group students sorted the shapes into examples of polygons and non examples of polygons. They then completed the Is it a polygon sheet independently.

U: My Shape Picture

Students used pattern blocks to create a picture. They then took a photo on my iphone (no class ipads unfortunately L) and began identifying the names of the 2D shapes they used in their picture.

I: 2D shape features

I used the flap book activity sheet from my Shape It Up packet as a follow up assessment of students understandings of 2D shapes and their features.

L: 3D Shape Hunt

I hid some foam 3D shapes around the room My students job was to find them and record their name, number of faces, edges and vertices and to attempt to draw a diagram of the shape.

D: Doing Math

It was only a short week so I used the teacher rotation as the D: doing math rotation this week.

In the teacher rotation this week we had a go at constructing 3D shapes using marshmallows and skewers sticks. I usually use toothpicks but decided to try the bigger skewer sticks this year!