I posted this the other day, but only one person responded. So, I decided to ask again! How do you run your Math Tubs or Math Centers? Do you give each group only one choice to do...or do you you give them several things to choose from? TIA
Our school district does Bridges Math. I give the kids 6 choices of Bridges centers (these are pre-made from a kit) and they have about 25 minutes to do one center. I do not allow rotating and I allow 4 students per center. The kids seem to be fine with no rotation to a new center. So, basically they are at one math tub per day during centers.
I have my students work in groups of 2 (one group may have 3 depending on how many students I have). We rotate math tubs daily and they do not get to switch during the time that we are using them. I don't know how much time your students get to use them, but mine only have 10-15 minutes a day because our schedule is so hectic. I made a management chart by taking a piece of poster board and writing the groups around the outside. I use clothespins that have a label on them (the label matches a label on a particular math tub) and rotate the clothespins daily. It works very well and is easy to use. My kids last year also could count how many days until they got their favorite math tub, so it was a learning tool as well. Hope this helps. BTW, I usually have 22 students so I have 11 math tubs.
thanks for everyone's help! it sounds like most of you do things the way that i do in my classroom. thanks again!
For math centers I have 4 tables, each table has a different activity they must complete. For example the green table may be working on sorting, the blue table patterning etc. Once everybody at that table has completed the required task then, and only then, they may choose another activity from the math center to work with until the time is up. Here is a link to my math page.
