Guided Math Essentials

We will be back to school tomorrow for the first time since Valentine's Day! I headed up to the school and worked on getting organized today. This math tub is something I always keep right behind my group table. Inside are materials that I use to support typical guided math lessons or pull out when we have a couple of extra minutes.

Flashcards

I love picking up sets of flash cards from the Dollar Tree! We use the number flash cards for recognition, greater/less than, sequencing, and more. I let the kiddos use the same or different cards in pairs and they describe the attributes to each other. The shapes cards we mainly use for recognition and practicing drawing the shapes. The kiddos love the Disney math facts cards! If they get a fact correct, I let them keep it. They love seeing which characters they can collect.

 

Number Lines and Number Cards

I have number lines to 10 and 30 for differentiated groups. I have number cards up to 100 that I also use for differentiated groups. We use these for number recognition and sequencing. One of our favorite games is seeing how fast we can sequence the cards. Give each student 3-5 cards and tell them what the starting number is. The students then have to lay down the card that comes next in the sequence if they are holding it. Then, we shuffle them up and see if we can beat our time.

Go Fish Finger Pattern Cards

These are great for my kiddos still working on representing numbers and counting. You can use these as flash cards, to play Go Fish, or to play a matching game.

Spinner, Dice, Domino Patterns

We use these tools for a variety of lessons and games. A lot of them focus on counting and addition/subtraction stories. We spin the spinner and practice writing the number it lands on, counting out that many objects, or creating a number story with two numbers. We play similar games with the dice and dominoes. 

I forgot to take a picture of our strategy cards! They remind us of strategies that we can use to solve math problems.

We use many other types of manipulatives, but these are the ones I always make sure I have on hand. Please let me know if you have other suggestions!