It's finally here!
At the end of last year my district did a little revamp to our math curriculum and moved around our scope and sequence a little bit. So, I knew that I wanted to dig into it and see how I could make my life a little easier this upcoming school year when planning for math. Needless to say, I've spent the last month or so really getting into it all and here it is!! The Year-Long Math Journal for kindergarten!
Interactive Notebooks
Why am I loving the idea of interactive notebooks for my kinders? Because it's the perfect way for my littlest learners to manage their work and keep it in a safe place. It also lends itself to bite-sized content so they are much more likely to engage and retain it in the long-run.
With that being said, this resource is meant to work as an interactive notebook (although the individual pages can be printed as worksheets) that pairs with your lessons and leads students into their work stations or centers. Let's take a peek...
Step 1: Designate a composition notebook as math journals
An Avery label template is provided so that all you have to do is print them out and slap them on to each notebook. Students write their names and they're ready!
Step 2: Scale down your student copies so they're small enough to fit inside their notebooks. On the copier I typically select to scale my pages down by 80-85%. Then, pre-slice them so you don't lose time with necessary cutting. ;)
Step 3: Teach!
It really is that simple!
Scope & Sequence
The units included in this resource follow my district's S&S for math and are TEKs aligned. However, the concepts covered are pretty typical for any kindergarten teacher no matter where you teach! Here's how it'll appear in my resource:
- Unit 1: I Am a Mathematician (first 20 days)
- AB/AABB Patterns
- Identifying Basic Shapes
- Rote Counting to 10
- Number Sense to 5
- Ordinal Numbers to 5
- Identify & Name Coins
- Unit 2: 2D Plane Shapes (10 Days)
- Unit 3: Number Sense to 5 (15 Days)
- Read, write, and represent numbers
- Comparing sets using >,<, and =
- 1 more/ 1 less
- Compose/decomose to 5
- Word problems to 5
- Unit 4: Number Sense to 10 (27 Days)
- Unit 5: Data Analysis to 10 (7 Days)
- Unit 6: Number Sense to 20 (29 Days)
- Unit 7: Join & Separate to 10 (32 Days)
- Unit 8: Data Analysis to 20 (7 Days)
- Unit 9: 3D Solids
- Unit 10: Measurement
- Length, Height, Weight, Capacity
- Unit 11: Personal Financial Literacy
- Income vs Gifts
- How to Earn Income
- Wants vs Needs
- Spend, Save, Give
Math Workshop:
My math workshop routine will look a little like this:
- Warm-Up (to review previously taught content - warm-ups included in download!)
- Mini-Lesson (whole group time that introduces new concept)
- This is when you can choose to have students with their journals and they complete their "we do" portion together OR you can have them complete it after you've modeled it.
- Independent Practice (the "you do" work pages where students work independently on a concept)
- Work Stations/Centers & Guided Math
- Reflection (review the "you do" work page and clear up any misconceptions)
Warm-Ups
These pages are optional, but I love the idea of before a lesson students have a small slip that asks them to demonstrate their understanding from previously taught material. It's just to get their brains thinking and working about math concepts. Each unit has a few prompts to choose from!
We Do/ You Do
This resource has both WE DO/YOU DO work pages as a part of every unit. It is designed to have students easily follow along and the independent work is limited to just a few problems...that's intentional! Plus the independent work acts almost like an exit ticket into their work stations, so they don't need to sit and complete 20 problems to show proficiency.
Practice Activities
There are 11 units total as a part of this resource and each one has a comprehensive set of practice pages, or the "you do" portion. They are designed to be kinder friendly with easy-to-complete prompts. Each one also aligns with the mini-lesson and is meant to be a way for students to independently practice the taught skill prior to jumping into a work station or center.
Word Problems
Through the SOLVE Method, kinders are able to better analyze word problems and utilize different tools to solving for them. That's why I've included many units with optional word problems. These can be used as independent practice or even its own unit! Completely up to you!
Low Prep = Happy Teaching
And that's about it! I can't wait to prep for my journals this year and my hope is you'll find this resource to help cut down on your math planning time, too. If you have any questions on how I use my math journals be sure to comment or email me at: littlefoxteaching@gmail.com!
