Bright Math Ideas Blog Hop: Math Journals for Kinder and First

Thanks for joining us on the hop this weekend!  I hope you leave with some new math ideas and useful materials.  Be sure to grab my St. Patrick's Day freebie, then click on the blog button at the bottom to hop over to the next blog!  

I cannot tell you how useful math journals have become in my classroom!  I have been using them for 3 years with great success.  

                                     

Click on the picture to download some FREE journal covers.

3 reasons why I continue to use math journals:

1)  Math journals serve as a record of student progress.  

When a student is responsible for illustrating his/her own math problem, I can tell right away which concepts he/she does not understand.  Did the student draw the correct number of items?  Did he/she add or subtract the correct amount?  Does the student struggle with where to begin?  

The journals also serve as a wonderful record of math progress to use during conferences.  I often make notes on student entries so I can best recall student performance and/or have something I wish to share with parents.

2)  They help me implement the Common Core Standards in a systematic way.  

I made sets of journal prompts to use in my classroom for every season and most holidays.  Each set covers ALL of the Common Core Standards.  Topics like patterns (not included in the standards, but a valuable math skill), counting, 2D shapes, and beginning addition are covered in the first semester.  Addition, subtraction, 3D shapes, the teens, and measurement are more of the focus during the second semester.  Making sure each set covers all of the standards helps me to provide students with several prompts per topic throughout the year.  

3)  The journals are so easy to prepare and implement!  

I buy composition notebooks (Yea for back to school sales!) for the journals.  I love using the prompts because they use much less ink than usual worksheets.    Plus, I make 6 on a page, so you only need to copy a few pages for the whole class!  I cut them out and give one to each student.  The student glues the prompt at the top of the page and we're ready to go!  

I made a FREE sample set of prompts for kinder and first.  They have a St. Patrick's Day theme and cover several standards.  Click on the picture below to get a copy!  

I hope your students enjoy using this set!  Be sure to HOP on over to Reading with Miss B!  Just click on the blog button below.  

Thanks for reading and enjoy the hop!