Math Centers

      The time change really affected my students! This past week was a crazy week with students getting excited about the first snow (even if it was just a sprinkling, it looked like glitter!).
Let's talk math centers now.
      Over the past month I have been incorporating a different set up of math centers. I have 10 baskets each touching on a different aspect of math: number sense, measurement, graphing, adding/subtracting, number order, counting, patterning, sorting, geometry, and anything extra! Each group of students (2-3) visits one math center every day, so they are focusing on 10 different areas over a time of 2 weeks. I like it simply because I am planning new things only every 2 weeks! No requirements of changing it out every day! In the baskets I am working on having a variety of tools for students to use during this time to focus on these aspects of math. With the new state MCLASS testing, I think I'm going to be focusing more on some of those standards in my "extra" basket! :)
      Over the past week (and upcoming week), I have had technology incorporated at 4 out of the 10 math centers! Talk about crazy! It was tricky the first couple of days; making sure that I had everything up and ready to go, but now, it's working a lot smoother and the kids are LOVING them! The 1st 2 weeks that I integrated these math centers during math time, I really struggled with having too many "tricky" centers, where I had to constantly move around the room, helping groups. Now, it's a little more simpler and working more nicely. I'm finding that with kindergarten, the more simpler the center is, the easier it is for them and me! They still are learning, but now I don't have to monitor EACH group EVERY second!
     Another update...I'm in LOVE with using technology in the classroom! Last week I spent hours at school finding more mimioboard activities to use in the classroom! I also searched for more IPAD apps! I'm finding out that looking for these things while watching TV, makes it much more fun!
Feel free to inform me of any specific APPS or computer programs/internet sites that would work awesome in my classroom! :)