BUILD Math Centers

BUILD is a new math centers program I am using for our classroom. I found this idea on adventuresinteaching.blogspot.com and loved it! Build is an acronym for B-buddy games, U- Using Manipulatives, I- Independent Reading, L- Learning about numbers, and D- Doing Math. 

We are rotating these centers in the afternoon after our main math lesson. We will spend 20 minutes at these centers and rotate to a different letter in BUILD each day of the week so by the end of the week each student will have rotated through all the centers.

This week for buddy games the students are to partner up and quiz on another with tens and ones rods. One students holds up tens rods and ones cubes and the other student identifies the number the cubes and rods represent.

For Using Manipulatives I started out by giving the students pattern blocks and work mats to create pictures. In the future I will rotate in coins, clocks, and cubes with varied activities to solidify the skills they have already acquired. 

Independent reading is just that- reading! The books at this center all have math concepts as the story line, like "The Greedy Triangle" and "Five Little Monkeys".

The Learning about numbers center focused on using cubes to help create fact family sentences. Each student wrote a fact family like 5+3= 8 and 8-3=5 and checked their answers with cubes.

Doing math was an extension activity we started last week with Valentines Day. The "Be Mine Boxes" allow the students to write a number in 4 different ways. They represent the number by writing number sentences, write the number word, tallies and tens and ones.

I am eager to continue to explore the many options these centers allow and I am happy to give my kiddos another outlet to practice their math skills in a fun and exciting way!

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