We are now fully into our station routines for both literacy and math. Our math station time consists of four stations, which are named according to the acronym MATH. M=Meet with the Teacher, A=All by Myself, T=Technology Time, and H=Hands On. Students rotate to two of the four stations each day, which means I meet with each small group of students 2-3 times per week for targeted math skill work. The 'All by Myself' station will include many activities, all of which should be independent for students to do. This week, students worked on counting and number formation. The Hands-On station includes exploration of our math tools and practice with games that are familiar to all students. The Technology station right now is done on Chromebooks. Students can visit online math games through ABCYa.com. Soon, students will use MobyMax, a website that adapts according to students' strengths and areas of weakness in math. I am working hard to get iPads for our classroom too, as the possibilities with iPads in math (and all subject areas) are staggering!
Our literacy stations are known as our "Daily 5." Students are currently going to one station per day, at the end of our Reading/Writing Workshop time. This is a time that I can work with small groups of students and confer with student individually to work on literacy-related skills. Eventually, there will be several choices within each Daily 5 station, and the tasks will be differentiated to meet student needs. Currently, the focus is helping students to work independently in these stations, to ensure small group/1:1 instruction is productive and not interrupted. The Daily 5 stations are Read to Self, Read to Someone, Work on Writing, Word Work, and Listen to Reading. Our Chromebooks are the tool of choice for the Listen to Reading station, as students can access several websites to listen to and watch books read aloud as well as work on a variety of literacy activities on Starfall.com and ABCYa.com. Read to Self is independent reading, Word Work is working on letters/sounds and sight words in a variety of hands-on ways, Work on Writing is working on a variety of writing genres (student selected), and Read to Someone is reading with a buddy (though we have not started this station yet--art station is taking its place).