Introducing Math

I have made it through my very first days as a 3rd grade teacher...and I am pooped!  The tininess of my students amazes me.  Moving from 4th grade to 3rd grade is a bigger adjustment than I thought it would be.  I am having to make sure I give instructions in smaller chunks and realizing how much less independent they are.  I am learning a lot though!  As I have mentioned before, my state has adopted and adapted the Math Common Core Standards.  My county has started the journey of training us in AMSTI (Alabama Math Science Technology Initiative) in math.  We got the Pearson Investigation Units and a whole lot of manipulatives.  I think it is always important to give kids time to play with new materials before you try to teach them how to use them as learning tools.  So today that is what we did.  I set up a few different stations around the room (unifix cubes, pattern blocks, small white boards, etc) and broke my kids into groups so they could explore.  We also practiced our station behavior before and during our exploration time.  We practiced walking from station to station silently, cleaning up after ourselves, working together, and staying on task.  After stations were all cleaned up, I asked the students to write in their math journals about how we behave and move during stations.  Students were then encouraged to share their writing under our Elmo (document camera).  I think this was a very valuable way to spend our time today.  I took some pictures of the kiddos exploring the materials and reading today.