As teachers, we’ve got a mountain of standards to conquer with our students. So, when it comes to picking activities, we want ones that are not only super engaging but also provide a big impact. That’s where a daily math routine swoops in like a math superhero! It’s the perfect recipe for helping our little learners build their number sense, conquer tricky word problems, and even sprinkle in some spiral review magic. Talk about getting the best bang for our teaching buck!
3 Must Haves for a Powerful Daily Math Routine
1. Number Sense Routine
In a daily math routine, you will want to work on building your students’ number sense. When students have good number sense, they can flexibly manipulate numbers, estimate quantities, recognize patterns, and understand relationships between quantities. One of the best number sense routines is through an activity called “What’s my number?”
For this activity, students are presented with a series of 4 steps. For example,
-Start with the the difference of 12-7.
-Add the sum of 8+5+2
-Increase your number by 1 ten, 3 ones
-Add 10
Students follow along on their own 120 chart and must complete each step. After the fourth step, students must figure out the number. In as little as 5 minutes, students can work on math facts, place value, and develop their math vocabulary! You can try it for free here.
2. Spiral Math Review Routine
You can spice up your daily math warm-up with a dash of spiral review! Be sure to include 3-4 activities to tackle tricky concepts with your students. Need inspiration? Sneak a peek at student assessments, exit tickets, and classwork to find those hidden treasure troves of concepts to review. You can even kick it up a notch by turning up the engagement dial by adding activities such as games, some partner work, and even movement. Let’s make math fun!
3. Daily Word Problem Routine
The last component of an epic daily math routine is to have students work on daily math story problems. By incorporating a daily word problem, you can ignite discussions between students about their mathematical thinking, turbocharge their fact fluency, and provide the ultimate differentiation. For example, you can provide multiple number sets for students to choose from. Best of all, by having students explain their strategies, they can inspire their peers to try new methods and develop more efficient problem solving strategies too!
As you can see, having a number sense routine, including spiral review, and using daily word problems are the perfect trifecta to take your math warm-up to the next level! It’s the ultimate formula for a math routine that will knock those standards out of the park! Your math warm-up game will never be the same again. Let’s do this!
If you would like to get started with a number sense routine that has already been done for you, click here!
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