Valentine's Day Math Centers

Did you all survive Valentine's Day? 

How do you celebrate in your classroom? 

My 5th graders do so many activities and special programs throughout the year that my grade partner and I decide to keep it very low key.

I gave each of my students a gel pen as their gift. 

I added these cute tags from The Creative Classroom, and we were good to go!

As you know, we are doing Math Workshop this year. Currently we are working on fractions and mixed numbers. Valentine's week we were starting Subtracting Mixed Numbers. I knew that if I taught this lesson as a whole group I would have so many confused students. I did not want to set ourselves up for failure, so I restructured our class time.

This week I would be teaching each small group how to subtract mixed numbers. Typically during the meet with teacher time I am working with my students who need the most help. This week I reversed that and met with my advanced group first.

The remainder of the groups were working on review activities.

All of my centers this week were made a little extra fun by sticking with the holiday theme!

Meet With Teacher:

Students worked through a few problems with me after explicit instruction. I created this activity for us to complete before working independently in our workbooks. You can grab it here.

At Your Seat:

Now since students did not receive whole group instruction, they did not have problems to complete from their book. For this center, the students were working on task cards as a small group. They were all mixed operations and served as great review. I provided the answer sheet for them to check their work.  

Technology:

During this time my students were working on review activities. After the students met with me they would be doing more with subtracting mixed numbers. I like using the computers because it provides instant feedback for my student. In addition, it allows them to analyze their mistakes before moving on.

Hands-On:

My math series comes with some great math games that I have been using during this center. (A big pitch for my implementing math workshop was that I would be incorporating more components of the series.) Before I had students complete the math game they would be making fractions using candy hearts. I used a freebie from Jennifer Findley, and my students loved it! This is definitely always the favorite center of the week. See - math can be fun!

I have to tell you, I swear by using Math Workshop! My students are engaged and always working. Typically we work in the library because I do not have enough devices in my classroom for the technology center. However, obviously the library is not for my only use and we can't get in there. This happened on Friday so we readjusted. It was a crazy week, so before my students went to their centers I had them complete this fun review color by code worksheet. Practice can be fun for 5th graders too!

Next week we will do a little review and then they will take their assessment. I have a very good feeling about this one!