Monday Made It #4 - T.I.M.E.R. Tubs

I'm once again linking up with Tara from 4th Grade Frolics for Monday Made It!  This week is a little less crafty and more so having to do with creating a whole new section of my classroom.  As you all know, I only teach Reading, Language Arts, and Social Studies but I would like to incorporate Math into my classroom for multiple reasons.  The first being that most classrooms are predominantly reading literacy based (especially mine) and kids don't get to see a lot of math or even science literacy.  Even though I have an extensive selection of math and science literature books, they are not put on display very well and I don't have any posters for kids to absorb different kinds of vocab.  Which is fine because they get it when they go to those specific classes, but when my homeroom kids stay with me on Wednesdays, they are exposed to a reading room.  "What do I do when I'm done?" - "READ"  Again, perfectly acceptable!  But I wanted to switch it up a little and add in some math stations.  Secondly, I thought doing this would help relate to the children that all the subjects are connected, you use reading in math!  The same strategies we use in reading can also be used in math.  Lastly, I just wanted a little challenge, something a little different this year (and I sort of miss math, lol).

This week's Monday Made It is T.I.M.E.R Tubs!  I was looking online through all the wonderful blogs out there for math stations and ran across these two: Down Under Teacher and Adventures in Teaching.  Both of these blogs have wonderul examples of, essentially, guided math groups.  Since the county is doing a big push for guided reading, why not throw in a little guided math on Wednesdays to spice it up a bit?!  After reading these two blogs I came up with my own system that I knew would work for me and my kiddos.

How I envision this in my head (who knows, it could go totally wrong but I'm the kind of girl that's gotta try!) is that I will have a chart that says where students go that Wednesday, just like guided reading groups.  Students will either be at T - Team Up, I - Independent Reading or Working, M - Manipulatives, E - Expand Your Knowledge, or R - Review.  I plan to work mostly with the Review kids unless they are getting the hang of it and another group needs my help.  The students will switch tubs every week and I will change out the contents of the tub about every 4-5 weeks.  That is not to say that I won't be repeating some of the activities or even moving some of the activities to different tubs as the year progresses.  Click on the T.I.M.E.R. Tubs explanation above to grab your free copy and labels!

I got the wonderful bins at the Dollar Tree last week!  Can't beat a whole new math station for just $5!  A lot of my activities are things I created, pages from e-books from Scholastic's Dollar Deals, ideas from workshops, games/worksheets from The Mailbox magazine and the wonderful freebies that others share online.  Here are some of my favorites:

• SNAP Math Fair - has great puzzles for Expand Your Knowledge (intermediate grades)
• Laura Candler's Math File Cabinet
• The Cornerstone
• Super Math Centers Link Up - teachers from all grades gave one math station idea and a freebie!
• Adventures in Teaching - she gives you some of her BUILD activities and where she found others
• Pinterest - math stations or centers

There are so many out there all you have to do is look!  If you have any great ideas, especially for 5th, please leave me a comment or link so I can add to the TIMER Tub collection.  Lord knows I need all the help I can get! LOL  Don't forget - today is the last day my Fraction Wars will be free to my followers!  Head over to my TPT store to grab your copy and leave me some feedback :o)
Sabra