As schools prepare for the new school year, teachers may be juggling how to use the best tools to teach in this strange COVID world. Whether in-person, hybrid, or fully virtual, digital math tools are an excellent choice. Digital activities keep students spaced, safe, and engaged! Even if you aren’t one to create your own activities, you can find plenty of resources online to help you get started!

In 2020, virtual math became a necessary element of digital classrooms. Now that teachers see the value in digital math resources, they are likely to be a part of future of education. Also, think about all the paper you can save by not having print every single thing!

Have I piqued your interest yet? Keep reading to find out how and why you digital math tools should be part of your curriculum!

Create or Buy

If you decide you want to create your own digital math centers, you can use these creative resources to design them.

1. Canva: Canva is a graphic design website that is free for educators to use! This program offers many templates and tutorials to help get you started.
2. Google Slides: Create your own digital math games and virtual math tools right in Google Slides. There are tons of free video tutorials that teach how to use the program to create activities to meet your students’ needs.
3. Seesaw: Many districts have moved to Seesaw which is fun and engaging platform. Create your own activities or import PDFs into the program to bring your activities to life.

There are so many ways to create your own resources. Check out YouTube to find free tutorials for each platform.

If you need inspiration to get started, you can find lots of digital math resources online at TeachersPayTeachers that will help get your creative juices flowing!

Not really interested in creating your own math centers? I’ve got you covered! Download my free digital math center to get an idea of what these math centers can look like in your classroom. If you love it and decide you want more, head over to my store on TPT to view all of my digital math center options.

Assigning Digital Math Activities

Now you have your digital math game or assignment ready for student use. Next, you need to assign them.

First, make sure students can access the activities from their device. If your classroom is 1:1 technology, you may need to borrow a student device during your prep to test it out. Testing it yourself will ensure the technology works and save you time from troubleshooting when in front of your class. 

Then, it’s time to assign. Assigning the digital math centers to your students will depend on the platform you are using. Seesaw requires you to have students assigned to your class. Google Slides requires your students to have email addresses to open the file.

A quick word of advice about using Google Slides: Make sure you force a copy of the file before you assign it. Otherwise, all the students will be editing the same document. Yikes! 

Check out this video on how to force a copy on Google Slides here.

Customize Digital Resources

Let’s face it, in our classrooms with 20-30 students, there are going to be a variety of needs among their adorable faces! How can we differentiate with digital math centers? Read on.

My digital math resources make differentiation super easy. With just a few clicks, you can easily adjust assignments to work for a small group of students or an individual student! Leveled recording sheets provide students the appropriate challenge that they need.

Students with IEPs or in the evaluation process may need modifications or accommodations. Try these options rather than creating something entirely different for them,

1. Remove answer options so students can pick from fewer options (e.g., 3 options instead of 5),
2. Reduce the number of slides to assign more or less to students as needed.
3. Rephrase the wording of the questions so they are easier to understand.

Most digital task cards in my store include differentiated recording sheets. These can also serve as a progress monitoring tool. Practice the task cards throughout the year and assign the recording sheets at an increasing difficulty to check how students are progressing to meet the grade-level standards.

Check out my article on how to differentiate virtual learning here!

Digital Tools Aren’t Just For Virtual Learning

Virtual math tools don’t have to be reserved just for virtual learning. Using them regularly as part of your classroom routine will get students acclimated to using them. And, should your district be required to go virtual again, it will make for an easier transition for you and your students!

There are so many options for using digital tools. Digital task cards can be used in whole group as a fun, engaging activity to get students excited to learn about the new skill. Use them in small group to monitor students’ responses and provide corrective feedback. Assign for individual center work or paperless homework.

If you are looking for more information about using digital math tools in your elementary classroom, check out my blog post on reasons to use digital math tools here! 

Why Use Digital Math Centers?

Using digital resources in your elementary classroom doesn’t have to be overwhelming or unrealistic. Students are often WAY more comfortable with technology than we give them credit for. As teachers in this technology-drive age, we must also become well versed in implementing technology. So, be confident and go for it!

Using digital math games are fun and engaging ways to get your students safely interacting with digital math manipulatives and building math skills. And all while thinking they are simply playing on a tablet! 

My store has tons of Digital Math Centers that your students will love! The digital resources I’ve created are differentiated and easy to use with the technology available in your classroom. Many also have a printable recording sheet option if you need an accountability or progress monitoring tool.

I recommend printing the recording sheets for use in your small group or as an independent work station so that students continue to get practice writing and working on paper-pencil math tasks. I promise your students are going to love them!

Do you have other tips and suggestions for using digital math cards in your classroom? I’d love to know! Leave me a comment below!

XoXo,

Candice

The post How and Why to Use Digital Math Centers appeared first on The Homeroom Teacher.

Since math is not the time to assess a child’s reading comprehension, instead give them problems that are easy to understand. Allow their working memory to attend to the math problem, not decoding and comprehending.

Here are some suggestions to write math problems in simpler, easier to understand ways.

Repeated Sentences for Math Problems

Math problems with repeated sentences give the student a predictable reading pattern to follow. When they catch on to the repetition, their focus will no longer be on decoding, but will be freed for the math problem. Using repeated sentences in math problems helps the student to focus more on the math problem and less on reading the words.

An example of repeated sentence math problems could look like this:

• Problem 1: I got 3 books. I got 2 more. How many books in all?
• Problem 2: I got 6 books. I got 1 more. How many books in all?
• Problem 3: I got 2 books. I got 8 more. How many books in all?

The problem is simple and repetitive, yet still challenges students to identify the keywords that signal which type of problem it is (e.g., more, in all) and provides an opportunity to comprehend a math situation.

Look at these adorable Zoo Animal Word Problems featuring predictable sentences. Each of the 3 sets includes a different phrasing for the problem. This allows the young readers 6 opportunities to practice with one particular word problem before moving on to reading a new word problem.

Decodable Sentences for Math Problems

Easily decodable CVC words (consonant-vowel-consonant), such as dog or bed are great for use in word problems for early readers. Many young, emergent, and struggling readers are capable of decoding, or “sounding out,” these words.

Here is an example of word problem using decodable words: “A cat got 5 rats. It got 5 more. How many rats did the cat get?” The bold words are all decodable and easy for emergent readers to sound out. The remaining five words would be sight words (a, more, how, many, the).

Sight word acquisition is a new skill for K-1, so minimal use in math word problems is best for that age group. Grades 2 and up should use sight words taught in previous grades in problems to ensure students have had ample opportunity to learn them through reading before being challenged to apply them in math.

The Takeaway

A child’s reading level should not prevent them learn math. Pay attention to word choice and readability when selecting word problems for emergent and struggling readers to prevent unnecessary hurdles.

Want to see more like this? Check out my shop for engaging teaching resources and sign up for my newsletter to have teaching tips and a freebie sent right to your inbox each month!

The post Math Problems for Emergent Readers appeared first on The Homeroom Teacher.

Exploring manipulatives was one of my favorite parts of starting a new school year with my students. It’s amazing the complexity of math children are capable of doing when given the right tools. But, like most teachers, I often didn’t have enough tools needed to for each student to have their own set to explore. And when I wasn’t? I spent my own money, like most teachers do. Or, I would do the dreaded cut, print, laminate routine to MAKE the manipulatives for my students.

It’s time to stop printing, laminating, and spending so much of your own money, and it’s time to get DIGITAL!

Feel like you aren’t techy enough to create your own materials? No problem! I have created a digital math center for every Common Core Math Standard that includes digital task cards, recording sheets, and, digital math tools. These activities are conveniently bundled for you in my Big Bundle of Digital Math Centers. These are a great way to engage students in learning, integrate technology into your instruction, and save paper (seriously — stop printing and laminating so much!)

And honestly, do I even need to talk about the amount of germs on those ancient, dusty manipulatives? Yeah, let’s just put those things away and not even go there this year…

If you haven’t signed up for my email list, please do so by clicking here! You will receive monthly tech-teaching tips, updates on my newest product releases, and everybody’s favorite… freebies!

The post Digital Math Tools, Welcome! appeared first on The Homeroom Teacher.