Math PODS

In my last post, I briefly mentioned my Daily Math spiraling activity.  I used it last year, and really ended up loving it.  I made a few additions and it's ready to go for this year.

Over the last 10 years, I have tried so many different published spiraling activities.  I liked many of them, but didn't love any of them.  I always felt like there weren't enough of the types of problems I needed for my students.  For instance, I especially need regrouping problems mid to end of the year.  I wanted my spiraling activity to encompass a variety of skills, but I wanted to start very basic and work towards building the level of difficulty.  I simply start with what they should know from first grade.  For instance with money, at the beginning of the year, I'd start with all pennies and gradually increase the level of difficulty.

Using the Math PODS allowed me to make my own problems (within the template) and choose the level of difficulty.  I started with single digit numbers at the beginning of the year and ended the year with 2-3 digit numbers.

There are only 2 pages that I copy front/back.  I give them a blank copy for the week and they keep it in their Math POD folders.  I like to write the answers on a blank copy and then use my document camera to display it on the Smart board.  By doing this, we can discuss the answers interactively.  You could also use an overhead projector.  I simply hand write the problems, and they copy and solve them on their own copies.

Here is an example of the PODS with suggestions:

There are also these additional pages for students to monitor their own progress.  

We complete these each Friday.

 When students score a 100 for the day, they will get a punch on their POD Squad punch card.  I don't actually use them as punch cards.  My students glue them into their folders and I initial them. 

At the end of last year, I was super pleased.  My students were very strong on every skill covered on these Math PODS, and I know the reason had to do with the repetitive review.  They never got bored, because the problems were always different.  They loved to be challenged weekly and looked forward to our MATH POD time.  I was also super excited when I got to money and time, and all my kids already knew how to do it.  YAY!!! When it was time to teach those skills, I was actually just reviewing.

If you are a second grade teacher looking for something a little different as a math review, you can check it out HERE.