Math Lesson Plans Elementary – a daily review is a must for your classroom. This reduces the need for math interventions and promotes mastery.
When a daily review is done systematically and with integrity, it provides remediation for students who are struggling with daily math concepts in number sense.
It also gives a way for math to be differentiated for higher ability learners.
This is a very small part of my mathematics lesson. It is a review – not a place to introduce or practice core concepts. The majority of your lesson must be children talking about math, experiencing and discovering new concepts and physically manipulating numbers. Think of it this way:
- Daily Review
- Anchor Task
- Guided Discussion
- Independent practice
You many not get to all of these every day, but the Daily Review and two of the other math activities should be present in every lesson.
How to Do a Daily Review for Elementary Math
I use a simple template to incorporate all the pieces of a Daily Review. Clicking on the image will give you a PDF to use in your room if you wish.
Since I teach second grade, I only give 4 problems – 2 Number Sense, 1 from another standard, and 1 challenge. That seems to be enough for my students, as they get them completed in 10 minutes. When I taught third and fifth grades I did 5-6 problems.
The Challenge box is always a critical thinking type of question for my students who are higher in math. It is a great way to enrich and differentiate within your math lesson plans. Elementary students can certainly understand that not everyone is expected to do this box, but those who are able to should.
I have adapted this to use on my SmartBoard, but I do like to hand them out every day.
The parents appreciate seeing what we are reviewing and many of them make up similar problems to help their children.
How do you know the type of questions to include?
- Give 4-5 problems at the beginning of the math lesson, or wherever you can fit it in your day.
- Allow students 10 minutes to solve them in their math journals or on the paper you provide.
- The problems can reflect the standards for your grade level, review prior standards or enrich for deeper meaning.
They should also reinforce previously learned instructional units and match conceptual focus of the current unit of instruction. After the review, give 2-3 Mental Math problems.
Once the students finish their Daily Math Practice & Review, we go over the questions as a class. I always allow the students to discuss their ways of solving a problem, use correct mathematical vocabulary (horizontal, not “fold it like a hot-dog!”), and do a quick visual check to see who needs to be intervened with.
Before starting my actual math lesson plans, the review is completed with mental math problems. These are five minute problem solving activities that really get kids to use their skills and show mastery of their facts.
To ensure accountability to all students attempting the problems and being active participants, I give a Daily Math Review Quiz almost every Friday.
The quiz is comprised of 5 questions that are all similar to the ones we have been reviewing throughout the week.