4 ways to start the year with fresh, engaging math centers!

Coming back from break can be hard…you are probably working on reteaching expectations and procedures, but have you thought about switching some things up in your classroom?! After all, your students are now halfway to third grade. They’re (hopefully) more mature and can handle a little more responsibility in the classroom than when you first started with them.

This is the time of year I like to rethink my math centers. Why?!

Engagement: New year, new routines…no more of the same ole’ same ole’ as last semester. Students love having something new to look forward to!
Challenging: This is the time of year to start pushing students a little more, encouraging them with higher-order thinking and real-world math projects.
Responsibility: Encourage student responsibility by giving them choice and a little more freedom with certain math centers.

In this blog post, I’m going to share 4 quick-action tips and tricks for introducing new math centers and routines. After all, who doesn’t love a fresh new start!

TIP #1: Spiral math skills you’ve already taught

One of my all-time favorite ways to revamp math centers is to spiral math skills you’ve already taught. You’ve probably already hit on place value, addition, and subtraction - essential skills that students should be practicing year-round. Create a new math center where students practice these concepts 2-3 times a week.

It doesn’t have to be complicated or involve you switching things out every day, here are some suggestions:

Recycle older games and centers from the first half of the year! Leave out a selection of place value and addition/subtraction activities that students can choose from. Students should already be familiar with these, so no teaching on your part is necessary! You can find my favorite hands-on math games here!
Use a choice board. Set up a menu of 6-9 activities for students to choose from that review previous math topics. This should last you for several weeks as students work through completing the choice board at their own pace. Let them be creative by having them create a board game, teach a lesson, etc.

TIP #2: Introduce math choice boards!

What are math choice boards? Exactly what they sound like - a choice board of activities for students to choose from that all pertain to a certain math topic. These can include a variety of open-ended activities, such as creating a board game, solving challenging riddles, and hands-on practice

Why should I use math choice boards? So. Many. Reasons. First, when students have a choice in their learning it ups their engagement and investment in their own learning. Think about it - normally at school, they are told exactly what to work on and when all day, every day. If you give them a choice of activities to choose from where they can select something that interests them…they’re going to LOVE it!

Second, these dramatically cut down on planning time for you. Instead of planning different math centers every day or week, you can give students a math choice board that lasts an entire unit. That’s it. You’re literally DONE planning as soon as you print it, and students are getting tons of in-depth practice.

How do you implement these? I initially started using math choice boards as an enrichment activity for my students who were mastering the 2nd grade standards quickly. And they really are perfect for that! But overtime, I was able to make tweaks here and there to cater them to all of my students.

I would print out a math choice board for each student, and when their small group was at the “Math Choice Board” center, they would simply pull out their choice board, select an activity and get to work. A lot of the activities I would include take more than one 15 minute block, so these choice boards truly last us an entire unit as students work through them.

Every so often I would have students bring their choice board work with them to small group so I can look over what they’re working on and give any guidance. This is also great for making sure they’re completing work to your standards, and not just giving a half-hearted effort.

Math choice boards can also be used as early finisher work when students complete whole-group work or other math centers early!

What kinds of activities do you include? I personally created specific menus for each math topic to vary the activities students see - but you can also use a very generic choice board and reuse it through each unit. Some ideas you can add to any choice board…

Create a board game for the math topic
Be the teacher & create a poster to teach the class
Write your own word problems
Create a vocabulary booklet
Relate the math topic to the real-world

TIP #3: Incorporate Math Manipulative Challenges!

A math manipulative center may seem a little basic and simple to you, but you can spice it up with engaging manipulative CHALLENGES!

What are math manipulative challenges? These challenges encourage students to work hands-on with manipulatives to further explore math concepts. These challenge students to think about a concept in a whole new light, but also have fun along the way.

What are some examples of manipulative challenges?

Place Value: Set up a station with base ten blocks. Challenge students to build a building with a value of 562. Have them write 3-4 sentences describing what blocks they used and why. Challenge them further by having them make another building with the same value, but with different blocks.
2D Shapes: Have your tangram shape blocks out. Challenge students to create an animal or picture that has 40 sides total. Have them document what shapes they used, label the number of sides, and show their work to add up the total sides.
Money & Coins: Let students use coins to create a money monster with a value of 87 cents. Have them record the coins they used to create their monster, and even show another way to create the same value but with different coins.

How do I set this up in my classroom? You can make this as simple as you’d like! Set up your manipulatives for the unit you’re working on. Simply write a new challenge on the whiteboard every day for students to work on while they’re at that center. Or if you’d like a set of premade task cards you can throw in the center and be *done*, you can grab mine here.

TIP #4: Bring out the MATH PROJECTS!

This last tip is my favorite because I can share about something that I am SUPER passionate about - Math Projects! Not just boring old math projects - ones that provide engaging content to create buy-in for your students, hit several different math topics, and give students the opportunity to see the real-world connection with math concepts! Yasss, all those things!!

Why use math projects in the classroom? Where do I even start?

Engage kids with a fun project theme so that they are excited to get to work
Show students real-world connections with math and different careers and scenarios
Challenge students in a new way and encourage critical thinking skills
Give students a chance to struggle and persevere and work through a problem
These are just a handful of reasons to use math projects in the classroom!

How do I use math projects in math centers? To start out with, I like to introduce them in a small-group setting. I also release the pieces of the project a little at a time so students aren’t overwhelmed when first starting out. Show them your expectations and work with them through any questions they may have. Then you can start to release the rest of the project during math centers. After completing one or two in this way, students will be ready for you to simply switch out a project once every few weeks or so, with no extra help from you!

What does a math project entail? Let me give you a quick run-down of my Build a Zoo project. Students will…

Use addition/subtraction to work in a budget to purchase animals for their zoo.
Measure the animals and create a layout of the zoo.
Create a schedule to follow for feeding the animal.
Help customers count their money at the souvenir shop.
Create new exhibits with their geometry skills.
Graph data based on popular zoo animals and exhibits.

Students get TONS of real-world math practice in such a fun and engaging way!

These are some of my favorite math centers to share, because they really help refresh your math blcok - kids love them, they’re long-term and low-prep options for you, and they really get students diving into math!