Preparing Interactive Math Journals

I have used Math Journals for 12 years. The ways I use them have changed over the years as I have become more comfortable with them. Now, I wouldn't know what to do without having them in my classroom.

This is how I have prepare them.

This year, I am using these composition books.Last year, I used spiral notebooks and they worked well. I am using the composition books because I had some left over and the room I moved into had a lot in there already so I didn't have to buy any. I printed a simple label for the front and taped it on.

On the back cover, I put a laminated Hundreds, Tens and Ones chart for the children to write on. I also stuck on a 100 chart sticker. I got the stickers from JoAnn Fabrics in their Teacher section. I got the Hundreds, Tens and Ones chart in the "Math Tools" set I bought on Teachers Pay Teachers. I printed it 2 to a page so they would be smaller.

On the inside cover, I attached the Math Tub of Tools from a set by Reagan Tunstall. You can get to it on Teachers Pay Teachers by clicking here.

We will start with reviewing the money and Odd and Even cards in the Tub of Tools.  We will add more tools as the year progresses.

In the inside of the back cover, I used duct tape to attach ribbon to be used as a bookmark. This will make it easier for the children to keep track where their next page is.

This is how I have prepared the Math Journals.  This will help us to be well prepared to start the year right off with our Math Journals.

Math Spiral Review

In my teaching career, I figured out very quickly that I needed to provide my students with continual spiral review of concepts in order for them to truly learn them. For most of my teaching years, I have taught First Grade (17 out of 20 years).

First Grade is full of discovery for children. Many of them are seeing things for the first time at school. In Math, I always use lots of hands-on activities and manipulatives to go along with learning to write math ideas and answers on paper.

Throughout the years, I discovered that the math series books that we used did not do an adequate job of spiral reviewing the concepts. Often, there would be some spiral review papers here and there, but I always felt like they needed a quick review almost daily.

I developed a daily math journal for my students that would provide a short daily practice of skills we had learned. It starts with easier concepts and gets more challenging as the year goes on and they learn more skills. I was recovering from Lyme Disease treatment one summer and was on the couch most of the month of July, so I had a lot of time to rearrange the problems and develop an order that matched our math series.

I divided the journal into four parts- one for each of our 9 week grading periods. I used these for five years until I moved to Second Grade. I'm now teaching Third Grade. I miss these Journals! I've been working on one for Third Grade. Hopefully, it will get done this year. I want it to be helpful for the students and worth the time it takes them to complete the problems each day, so it is going slow as I figure out how I want it.

Anyway, if you are looking for an easy way to incorporate a spiral review in your First Grade math class, here are the links to my Math Journals.