Modern Day Math Stations with Teacher Input

One of my favorite days of the week is Friday (read on to find out why):

I am sure many of you enjoy watching your students play or work on math, whether task card quizzing, color by number, games, or math vocabulary.  Students thrive and benefit from continued practice of math facts and general interest in math activities.  Below is an outline of how I conduct math stations in my classroom and advice from other teachers, just like us, for how to use stations in your classroom.

Setup:

Prepping cards for a pocket chart.

I have about five students in each group.

One area where I store activities.

As featured above, I ensure that I have my cards printed, cut, and ready to place.  I found the perfect pocket chart on Amazon through much research and deliberation.  I generally use the same title cards for each group, but I have a few other options, just in case we get lucky and get 1:1 technology for the day or something like that.  My station cards are here, with editable cards included for your personal touch.

When it comes to the setup of students, I start by sorting my groups first.  I usually have somewhere between 28 – 33 students in my classroom.  Balancing each group is important, so I use testing data to split my students and ensure they are matched appropriately for more effective learning opportunities.  Generally, depending on the aforementioned criteria, I have somewhere from 4 – 6 students in a group.

Kim from Stress-Free Teaching says “My advice would be to make sure that you are purposeful in forming groups.  There is more to math workshop than just stations.  Strategically grouping students is important.  Pretest data is beneficial.  Planning is also very important.  Math stations are my favorite way to teach math!”

Anna Rhodes over at Exploring All Rhodes says “It's all about finding structure in the beginning and to be ready for flexibility.  Sometimes this means you need to start with 2 solid groups and build from there, other times this means you need to tune up management.  Additionally, using exit ticket data to continually change up the groups helps to provide more exact instruction and fill gaps while ensuring enrichment opportunities as well.”

“Create a slide with students names so they have a visual of where they should be working.  Use labeled bins to keep supplies in for each center.  Prepare fully every other week: copies made for the whole class, rotations made, and everything laminated of course!!” – Lauren Summers, Summers.Syllabus

Routine:

Time in my classroom is strapped, as I'm sure some of you are nodding your heads, thinking ‘yep!' as you read this.  I have found it much easier to use math stations one day a week, Friday!  However, plenty of teachers out there use math stations daily, and it also works well for them!  I typically use the entire 90 minutes and allow the groups to rotate throughout each station.  Many of my activities are targeted for general use in the classroom, except ‘At Your Seat' and ‘Teacher Table.'  These two groups are designed strictly for the specific groups visiting each time.

Kristin Jones from Live Love and Teach says, “Make sure the games/activities you place in your stations are developmentally appropriate, do not contain content that has not been taught in small group instruction, and are engaging enough to be beneficial!”

I begin each Friday by taking somewhere from 8 – 12 minutes to explain each station and the expectations within.  If students are working on and collecting worksheets from each station, they have a designated folder where their work should be placed.  If students do not have the opportunity to complete the assignment while working at the station, the work can be used as a ‘what do I do when I'm done' activity.  I consider that a win/win.

Lori Caldwell over at Teach in the Heart of Texas reminds us to “Take time to teach your expectations to your kids.  If you want them to be accountable and take the time to actually work, then make sure you model how each station should look and sound before letting them loose.”

Once I had finished explaining the rules and expectations of each station, I set a timer and allowed the students to move to their groups.  I then took my place at the teacher's table and began working with the first group.  Occasionally, there will be a moment or more where you must excuse yourself from your table to assist a few students or help students get back on task.  I have had rare moments of this occurring, but we all know there is one every year (my time may be coming).

At the end of each timer, which is about 15 minutes each since I have five groups, I call ‘TIME' and ask the students to ‘FREEZE.'  I remind each group where they are moving, provide additional information if necessary, and then say, ‘Please move quietly and safely, AND GO!'.

On the final timer, which is usually when I have finished the fifth group, I ask all students to FREEZE and then ask them to clean up their stations and place materials on my kidney table, which I deem the ‘back table.'  Then I ask students to return to their seats, and we have roughly a five-minute debrief on what we saw at each station, what we liked, disliked, and would maybe like to see again.  I believe this fabulously engages student discourse!

Ally G, from Adventures with Miss G says “Be patient – it takes a couple of times for the kids to get the hang of what they are expected to do, but it will be super beneficial!”

Larissa McElrath from Stop.Collabore.Teach gives some down to Earth advice: “Get organized and make your copies beforehand.  Also, make sure you laminate as much as you can so you can use it in the future.”

Larissa McElrath uses this division choice board in her classroom during Math Workshop.

For Teachers Who Would Like to, or Do, Use Math Stations Daily:

“I focus my stations on what students need to review from a skill previously taught in class.  I also make sure it's a hands on review or something I can monitor, like a fluency check, so my students are engaged either way.  I allow about three students per station and (combined with ELA/SS/Science stations), I end up with six students who rotate through every two days while I pull for small groups in reading a math, and, on Friday, students get to choose their stations.  To group students, I try to put a high, medium, and low in each group and change them every week.  This system has worked for me in multiple grades with a variety of learners.” – Emily Turk, Lanyards and Lessons (see photos of her stations below)

“1. Take time to set up the stations.  The more time you put in at the beginning to show the students the routines, the smoother the stations will go!
2. Keep all the supplies for the stations organized so the students know where to find the materials they need.  That way the students won't have to interrupt your station time to ask questions.
3. Give the students the power with answer keys!  Provide answer keys for some of the stations so students can check their work.  This will save you lots of time with grading!
4. Provide a menu of options for the stations at the start of the year (if menu options are generic) or at the start of each chapter (if they are content specific).  That way students have something tangible they can refer to when they have a question.” – Annette Franco, Let's Be Franco

What Products Are the Teachers Suggesting?

Kristin Jones (K – 8th): Wheel Relays for Math Rainbow Growing Bundle
Kristin Jones (K – 3rd): Place Value Robots Base Ten Blocks Activities
Emily Turk (K-2nd): Math Center/Station Task Cards
Emily Turk (1st): 1st Grade Common Core: Math Bundle Checklist
Lauren Summers (1st): Snowball Fact Families Math Center Game
Lauren Summers (2nd): Build a Snowman 3-digit Addition Math Center with Regrouping
Lori Caldwell (3rd – 6th): World of Fractions Passport
Lori Caldwell (4th – 6th): Stem and Leaf Football
Rachel Jamison (4th – 5th): Conversion Excursion Converting Different Units of Measurement
Kim at Stress-Free Teaching (5th): 5th Grade Math Spiral Review for use with Google Forms
Kim at Stress-Free Teaching (5th): Place Value Practice
Anna Rhodes (all): Math Stations Management (Google Slides)