Math Meeting Updated

As I've written before, I've been working to make my math routine more interesting. I was reading one of my favorite 2nd grade blogs, Second Grade Shenanigans, and I came across her morning math meeting called Mission Possible Math.

Her math routine is so much fun! Unfortunately some of the technology she has available to her that I would LOVE to have (cough cough SMARTBOARD) I do not have access to. I do, however, have a computer and a projector. So I tweaked her fun idea to make it work for me.

Math goes as follows:

1. Calendar Time
- We talk about how to write the date, both long form and with numbers, discuss upcoming dates, and sing a few songs, including "Days of the Week" to the tune of the Adams Family.

Days of the Week *snap snap*

Days of the Week *snap snap*

Days of the Week, Days of the Week, Days of the Week

There's Sunday, and there's Monday

There's Tuesday, and there's Wednesday

There's Thursday, and there's Friday

And then there's Saturday

Days of the Week *snap snap*

Days of the Week *snap snap*

Days of the Week, Days of the Week, Days of the Week

2. Daily Weather

- Students make predictions about the current temperature. We then look at the class thermometer to see which prediction is the closest, record the finding on our temperature graph, and then make observations about the trends we see on the graph.

3. Counting

- I posted about this earlier, so if you want more details about this process, click here.

4. Mission Possible Math

- Students take out their Mission Possible Math binders for a daily independent practice of several skills.  I got the materials from Second Grade Shenanigans for free (which is amazing).

The outside of the binder looks like this

The inside looks like this 

The students have four practice problems in the top squares. Recently I've been giving them two word problems, one pattern problem, and one square I use for math facts review. Then they practice time. I give them a digital time, then they write the time on an analogue clock, as well as 1 hour later and 1 hour earlier. The last task they do is practicing number sense. I give them a random number and they write if it is odd or even, put it in extended form, and identify the "number neighbors" (which numbers come before and after). 

Hope King uses a Smart Board for this, but I've been using Powerpoint and my projector to do pretty much the same thing.

Powerpoint slide for the Mission Possible Math

The projection on my board

I give students about 8-10 minutes to complete the work. When they've finished I ask them to take out a colored pencil and we go over the answers. Since I project onto the dry erase board, I write directly on the board as we correct. 

To wrap things up, I project a Flocabulary video and the students sing along. 

Once we finish the math raps, the students come to the carpet and I begin the daily lesson. So far it's been working pretty well for me, but I'm sure I'm be changing things for a while until I think its perfect (if that's even possible).