Math rotations ROCK!!!!

Oh my gosh I LOVE LOVE LOVE my math rotations!! My kids also loved the new rotation board! I took in the foam board and the other pieces I made and put them all up this morning before they came in. I LOVE how cute my board looks now and it is SO easy for the to follow.

Here is a picture of my completed Math Rotation bulletin board:

Now I am trying to figure out a way to make a similar board for my reading rotations. Here is a picture of my now boring reading rotation board.

 I am not really that good with making graphics and all like so many of you are so I have to really work on it to try to figure out how to make it look good. I know what I need I just need to find the right graphics and fonts. Anyone with any good sites for fonts and graphics please share them with me!


My kids were so engaged during math rotations today, I could hear them talking but they were talking about math. At the Math Facts station I had 2 little girls using the flashcards and they made up their own game with the flashcards and their slate boards. They were all engaged. I only had to redirect 1 group, it is a group of all boys and as my students at the teacher table were working independently I got up to get my water bottle from my desk, as I walked by one of the little darlings hid his slate board, LOL they always give themselves away LOL I stopped and made them all show me their boards, the one that had hidden his board had drawn on his instead of doing the math, he was easily redirected and when given the choice to stay on task or move his clip down he chose to stay on task.

Below are some pictures I snapped of them all engaged in different stations.

 These students are doing the At Your Seat station - working on their workbooks 

This is part of the Math Facts station

They had the choice between flash cards and using a computer program called FasttMath

Teacher Table - Working independently on with their slate boards 

Hands On station - Playing a game that goes with our math series

On another note, we had another of our dreaded Data Meetings today and for the first time I walked out of the meeting without being stressed. I said to myself when I walked in the door - This is NOT going to get to me I am doing what I know works - and it worked, I left the meeting feeling just like I did when I walked in. We have our state writing test next Tuesday so that was a big focus of the meeting. At one point our principal asked us "So what will you all be doing on Monday" the room was silent, no one saying anything so I spoke up and said "Praying" LOL the whole room started laughing and it broke a lot of the tension in the room. All through this data meeting I kept thinking about my math rotations. My kids were working on decimals, fractions, and percents and I had 2 students from 2 totally different groups say to me "Mrs. Foreman I really like these rotations, I don't get it when you are teaching the whole class at the same time but when I come back here to the teacher table I totally get it." You can have all the data meetings you want... THAT was all the data I needed to know that I am doing the right thing. 

Math Rotations

Last week I began using Math Rotations in my classroom during my math block and even though we only did it for a couple of days I love it and so do my students. I was looking for a way to tweak my rotations so that the students could get more out of them and they would have a center that would allow them time to practice independently with the required workbook pages. Many of you suggested I check out Clutter-Free classroom's Math Rotation set and I am SO glad I did. I purchased the math rotation set from TpT and put together everything I would need to set up my Math rotation board first thing in the morning. I actually have an empty bulletin board in my classroom that I have been trying to fill up and I think this will be perfect! I bought a piece of black foam board for the rotation set-up, and I used glue stick and double sided tape to put it together:

Then when I get to school tomorrow I will hang this on the bulletin board (after I add some cute border). Since it is foam board and not poster board I am a little perplexed as to how I can hand it on the bulletin board. I think it will be too thick for staples. I may have to use wax or maybe go buy some Command strips. Any other ideas on how to hang this would be greatly appreciated.

Then, for the groups, I took 4 pieces of purple paper and laminated it and put the group number at the top, I am going to use post it notes to identify group members (this will make so easy to change them if I see that the groups need to be tweaked) - another idea I got from Clutter-Free Classroom.

Finally, I took the header for each of the 4 rotations and I laminated that and attached it to a laminated piece of white card stock and I will use that to write the center activities for the day on it. CFC uses a pocket chart for hers but I don't think my bulletin board is big enough for that. We have small bulletin boards.

I can't wait to introduce this to my students so I am hoping I have it all up and in place before they arrive tomorrow morning. I am actually getting up 30 minutes early soI can get to school a little earlier to get the board al set up.

On a side note, I absolutely LOVE music and I listen to my iPhone all the time. So today, as I was busy working my behind off today making everything for my math rotations I was listening to my music when a song by Rascal Flatts came on and it's called "Stand." I have heard this song many many times and its one of my favorites (which is why its on my iPhone) but as I was singing along today I realized that the first verse and the chorus fit perfectly with my mood/situation/feelings about teaching lately. SO I wanted to share those first few lyrics with you all because they really lit a fire in me and believe me I plan to stand:

You feel like a candle in a hurricane
Just like a picture with a broken frame
Alone and helpless
Like you've lost your fight
But you'll be alright, you'll be alright

[Chorus:]
Cause when push comes to shove
You taste what you're made of
You might bend, till you break
Cause its all you can take
On your knees you look up
Decide you've had enough
You get mad you get strong
Wipe your hands shake it off
Then you stand, Then you stand