Math Centers for Grade 5 (29 Weeks)

A weekly whole-group classroom system for centers with opportunities to experience the grade 5 math topics using writing, hands-on manipulatives, small group work, independent tasks, and technology. This resource extends your students’ understanding by devoting 75 minutes a week to math rotations that will stretch their thinking and further develop their problem solving skills. This structure is used best in tandem with your regular mathematics curriculum to learn and apply the concepts in a being learned each week.

WHAT’S INCLUDED

This resource contains:
–> 29 weeks of center rotations (5 fifteen-minute rotations per week)
–> Guide to implementing the centers

STORY

Warm ups, writing prompts, partner work, note taking, and textbook problems are not enough to keep up a learner’s interest and full capabilities for learning in the math classroom. I decided my first year to implement a weekly rotation for math centers modeled after the “Daily 5” strategy used in language arts. Students go through 5 fifteen-minute rotations using a variety of tools to explore the current unit or topic we are working through as a class. This structure gives students something to look forward to (we always do it on Wednesdays) and also provides extra time for focused group work that goes beyond the pages of a textbook or my abilities to teach the entire class at once. Set up these rotations as a weekly structure in your class and wait for your students to wish it was centers day!

IMPLEMENTATION

This resource gives you 29 weeks of math rotations which explore everything from area and perimeter to fractions to decimals to financial literacy. Set up the 75-minute rotations for the same day each week according to the concepts being learned in your usual curriculum.

POSSIBLE EXTENSIONS

There are so many extensions to the activities, vocabulary questions, and games found in these 29 weeks of centers.

MATERIALS/PREREQUISITES

Besides this resource, you may require:
–> Manipulatives like base ten blocks, centimeter cubes, fraction tiles, decimal tiles or paper versions of these
–> Whiteboards and Markers
–> Technology with access to internet (I like to use our classroom’s smart board but you can choose to structure the technology rotation around individual laptops instead)
–> A teacher account to an online, interactive math game website like Splash Learn or Legends of Learning