I have been doing lots of IRIs and state mandated testing, so my kids were OvErJoYeD to start math centers recently. I heard lots of things like: "You're the nicest teacher ever" and "I loooove math centers!". Made my day.
For the longest time, I had a hard time with math centers but I've finally seemed to find a system that really works. I use 4 different colored bags to represent the letters M.A.T.H. {master facts, activities and games, talk math, and hands on}. For each letter I have 3 bags, so there are 12 centers total. You can find the resources to do this in your own classroom on TpT in
English or in
Spanish. {The bags came from oriental trading}
I use a lot of
game boards {purchased by our district}, games that we have already played as a whole class, and other easy games and activities. Click
here to get a few ideas of free games and activities. Here are some pictures of the centers being played in my classroom:
I let students pick their own center and partner, but they are only allowed to play each center once. The centers are labeled with a letter and a number, so students mark an "X" in the box after they choose their center.
I switch out the center activities and games periodically when we have done a new activity/ game in class. There is really no schedule to changing the centers, though. I just change a bag when I have something new to put in it.
I have found it to be an easy and manageable system! I would love to hear how you do math centers in your class or if this idea sounds like something that you could use. I can't believe we are nearing the end of October!!
