Implementing & Integrating Multiple Math Concepts during MATH Stations

So, I wanted to follow up to my series on my MATH stations, but orginially planned to make the next post about division. But then I decided that instead, it would be probably more informative and beneficial to give you some more ideas on how you can incorporate them with other contents, especially as I have now moved into our unit over counting money & telling time. I still have many students working on mastering their multiplication facts, but I didn't feel that lingering in multiplication & division skills was necessary any longer. I especially felt this way as I gave our end of the unit Interview Assessment over the foundational skills and every single student reached mastery level! It was definitely time to move on (maybe even a tad overdue) and I wanted to take some time to explain how I am integrating the new unit while several students continue to work through The Multiplication Station. [if you missed any of those posts about my MATH stations, you can start here in reading them].

To quickly recap, the four MATH stations are: M- math facts, A- at your seat, T- teacher time, & H- hands-on. In my new unit, I am leaving the [A] station the same. Most students are still working through The Multiplication Station, so I have not changed that aspect. Four students have finished within in the past two weeks, so this gives me the opportunity to differentiate for them with higher-level skill practice. As students finish, it gives me an opportunity to continue differentiating based on the student and his/her skill level. It's also a great time to implement review of old skills.

[M] time in the unit is also basically the same. It's a time to continue to practice those facts, so students who demonstrated mastery and fluency on all of the facts through x12 won't lose what they've learned. It's also a time I can have them practice facts in other ways, such as through division, two- and three-by-one digit problems, and missing number equations.

[T] and [H] are the main areas I have taken and added in the new skills we are learning. Especially during [T]eacher time, can I teach concepts like time to the minute, other ways to say the time, and the ever challenging elapsed time. I am also simultaneously teaching money. I decided to move toward a "spiral" style lesson implementation (I guess we could call it that) by alternating the time and money lessons every other day. This way, I am teaching multiple skills at once, we are practicing them on alternate days, and students are staying completely engaged. For instance, on Monday I might teach a time skill while they practice money skills during [H]ands-on time. Then on Tuesday, I switch it and teach money skills while they practice the time skill they learned the day before in [H]ands-on time. Then switch again on Wednesday, Thursday, and so on. I have really liked how it has been working so far, and as I said in the first post that MATH stations are a lot of prep work, I know that my students' excitement, engagement level, and comprehension levels have been completely worth it. I also have reaalllllyyy enjoyed watching them have fun in their learning during this time, so it has been fun for me as well!

Here's some pictures and examples of what we've been up to this week, as well as interactive lessons I used in the past that could easily be integrated as I mentioned above. I am already thinking that next year I will alternate and "spiral" teach my lessons so I am not focused on "chapters" and "units" but am just teaching the overall math skills my curriculum teaches in our MATH stations format. I am excited for summer so I can sit down and really think about, and plan it all out!

Okay.. now for the fun part for real, enough of my talking... my students in action!


After a day of working with some manipulative clocks to make times and talk about the parts of a clock (just to awaken those skills) during teacher time one day, students worked on these clock flaps during [H]ands-on time. These are from Blair Turner, once again...

I love how the student above extended the clock hands and used a highlighter to show exactly where the hands are, just as I taught them :)

Above, the students who finished The Multiplication Station already (and are my higher level thinkers) worked on Math Menus from Schoolhouse Diva during [A]t your seat. I was able to choose which menu and which differentiated worksheet they used to practice money skills. They did fabulous and loved it!

 You can see some students are working on two different things at the same time.

GIANT coins from The Dollar Tree toy section make counting money way more fun! 

These students above using the worksheet are again my higher level thinkers. They worked on a more advanced workbook page (I feel obligated to use because parents paid for them, even though I really dislike our math curriculum)... so I gave them the option of using manipulatives and writing on the table to make it more engaging. 

Other students worked below to count coins with Lucky Little Learner's INB money activities.

I also added the option of them being able to make money amounts with the giant coins using cards I have from another activity I made. They are from my Fast Food Money Match in my TpT store. You could easily print some up and do the same! This student is working on this during the [H]ands-on station.

These students below are using my Problem Solving Math Mats to practice problem solving skills related to multiplication and division during the [H]ands-on station. I loved her stance - she had her hand on her brow, thinking really hard!

Here's another look at activities in The Multiplication Station. A deck of cards (without the face cards) makes for a fun game to practice facts!

This one dug out an old school file folder game I made to practice division facts. Carson-Dellosa provided this one, and so did my sweet Crayola skills!

The above and below images show an example of [M]ath fact practice. I used blank INB flaps (again from Blair Turner) and challenged my to students to practice "tough" facts. You can read below that this learner copied in my directions exactly from the example I made.... she rocks! :)

 Another old school fact practice.....Tupperware flashcards!

(sorry for the blurriness!)

 These fact family houses are from the beginning of the year, when we review addition & subtraction skills. If you want to implement MATH stations in other unit studies or grade levels, multiplication & division could easily be replaced by addition & subtraction. These lessons from Lucky Little Learners could easily be used during the [M] or [H] stations.

These are from our Geometry unit we worked through before starting MATH stations. I am thinking that next year, I would introduce the vocabulary flaps you see here and the shape attribute flaps below (all from Blair Turner) would be taught during [T]eacher time. I would then have the [H]ands-on station activities and [A]t your seat work relate to our study also, while they practice either addition, subtraction, multiplication or division facts at the [M]ath fact station.

We also took a Multiplication Scoot early in the week during [M]ath fact time that I turned into an assessment grade for multiplying larger numbers. Here's a preview of it:

My class (of 13 girls & only 2 boys) SQUEALED when they saw we were doing another scoot. The LOVE them! I just posted it in my TpT store if you could use one too!

Again, most of these pictures were taken during the past week when I began teaching the new unit. There is a lot going on during our hour (or so) of MATH groups... and I absolutely love it!

I hope all of this inspires you with some more ideas of how you can implement and integrate MATH stations with your kiddos across multiple units of study! Share some below if you already do this, or if it got your wheels turning! I'd love other input and ideas!!

MATH groups: [T] Teacher Time

Okay, so I've talked to you about [M] - Math facts and [A] - At your seat time. Now for the third station.. [T] Teacher time.

This is the station that can take a good amount of time to prep (who am I kidding, they ALL take time to prep!) but is also where the bulk of student learning is going to occur because here is where you can teach the strategies they need for solving multiplication facts. This is also where you can differentiate and modify your how you group your students according to what you are teaching.

Here's a quick look at my lesson plan book and some of what I taught during this time:

As you can see above, I have used this time to each the following concepts:

Vocabulary terms: product, factor, multiply, equal groups, multiples
Strategies: equal groups, arrays, breaking apart a factor, fact families, skip counting
Word problems
Multiplying 3 numbers
Order of operations

I use my dry erase easel, manipulatives, and interactive notebook activities from Blair Turner to teach most of the lessons in a hands-on approach. It keeps my students engaged and gives us just enough time together to work through a new concept but not too much time where they become bored and lose interest.

This week, I used Friday as our RTI and enrichment time. Yesterday, I worked with my higher students on using input and output tables. They were the first group I worked with. Then, I called other groups back and asked them if there was anything they were struggling with, not fully understanding, or just wanted extra practice with. I think asking them was important because I made them really think through their comprehension, and assess & reflect on their work so far. Their responses were fantastic! A few students said they felt good so I allowed them to take some extra time to study flashcards or play a game to practice skills. But, I had two groups that had students wanting to work on their x4 facts and some who wanted help understanding the 9s finger trick again. I was happy to spend that time helping them overcome their struggles. I may not have worked on those skills specifically during RTI time and it would not have been very meaningful or helpful to them.

Here's a look at that RTI time.. it was the first time I had ever tried writing on our kidney table with a dry erase marker.... their minds were BLOWN! It was so much fun to see their engagement through the rest of the lesson all because we wrote on the table!

Here we worked more on the 9s trick using our fingers. I drew it out on the table to make it more visual and concrete for them before we worked through it in a more abstract way.

One entire group felt good about their skills and comprehension within all the studied concepts thus far, and I agreed, so I started working on my summative assessment for the unit which I administer interview style. That is what you see below. If you click the picture you can find them in TpT store.

I'll be back tomorrow with the rest of my MATH station set up with the [H] station!

Multiplication Fact Mastery: part three

Next, we started to make our multiplication flashcards. This is what will be about 2 weeks' worth of assignments for our MATH stations (which I explained in my last post here). M stands for Math facts, so flashcards fits perfectly here!
I know that it would be easier to go to the dollar store or Target Dollar Spot and buy bunch of packs for the students to practice with, but where is the fun in that?? and also, how does that make them meaningful?? I want them to really belong to my students, so we make our own every year. Yes, they are time consuming. Yes, it can be frustrating for you as a teacher (I had to hole punch A LOT of index cards!) BUT, my students LOVE making their own flashcards. They feel ownership over those cards and much more responsibility for them because they know how much hard work they put into making them themselves.

To gather the resources for them, I actually ask parents to send in 2-3 packs of blank index cards as part of our school supply list at the beginning of the year. It means I have to store a whole bunch of packs for a few months until we make them, but in the long run it is worth it! They only thing I provide my students is a large binder ring on which their cards will be kept. I also prep them with a hole puncher the day before we make each set and after some modeling and guiding through the ones, twos, and fives, they are on their own to make them in the future!

This was how I guided them in making the first three sets as a whole group. I went over the guidelines for how they had to set up their cards: 

You can even see my example card for 1x1 taped to the board. It stayed there for a few days :) 

1. They had to use marker to write the fact vertically on one side of the card.

2. They had to use pencil to write the answer on the back of the card (so it won't show through)

3. They had to put their initials on EVERY card (in case they lost one/some)

4. One fact set had to be all one color marker, but then the next fact set could be a different color (to prevent rainbow writing!)

5. They had to write the facts just as they are on the board (the set we worked on was always on the bottom)

I would then select one student at a time to go to the board to write the first fact and tell us the answer, then another student would go up and write the next fact and tell us the answer, and so on until all facts through x12 in that set were listed on the board with the answer. 

I then gave everyone a small stack of blank cards and turned them loose to making their flashcards!

I also feel that when they make their own, all those numbers stick. They are writing every. single. fact. and it's product when they make these. That's important.

Eventually, as you see in my last post about Math fact time, they made their own flashcards for the rest of the fact sets. I would write the facts on a small dry erase easel that I placed on one of my students' desks. Our next hour of work is then a MESS! Students and papers are everywhere, and no one is sitting (or standing) at their own desks. I always keep my students' desks grouped in pods and their pods become our working area. One area is always designated for where they make their flashcards, and all of the supplies they need (the blank cards, the easel with the facts, and the colored key you see above) are put in that area. They take all of the supplies they need (markers, pencils, flashcard ring) and move to that area. It's controlled chaos.... and I LOVE IT!


Well, that's all I bother you with for now. I'll be back soon! There's A LOT more to share :)