What Worked Well Wednesday! - Math Tubs

Hey everyone!  Sorry it's been a few weeks since my last post and I totally know it is not Wednesday!  I was gone yesterday mostly all day so I forgot to link up.  I'm feeling the back to school tired also the ragweed in the air.  The struggle is definitely real in the evenings at my house.  Today was our 6th day of school and I'm getting use to this teaching thing again.  :)

Today I'm linking up with the Kinder Tribe.  Click that link to see Learning With Mrs. Langley's What Worked Well Wednesday and the other posts!

My What Worked Well Wednesday is....

MATH TUBS!

I am so very happy that I started math tubs this school year!!!  Where has this been the last several years?  I'm really not sure why I haven't tried it before.  I had blogged several times this summer about how excited I was for this shelf.  Well friends, here it is!

I was unhappy with how sometimes I had 15-20 minutes at the end of my math block with nothing to do.  We would end up playing SmartBoard math games, which were okay but not hands on at all.  Now that I'm in my fourth year of teaching, I'm realizing things I did my first year can change and evolve.  I had some great ideas then, but some I've realized I just did to get by being a new teacher (example...empty time after math).

My students would participate in the math lesson, do their independent work, and then sit for 20 minutes watching a math game.  Whomp whomp.

Finally I was inspired to do math tubs.  I've seen various forms and fashions of them around Pinterest and blogs.  I decided to buy the cubby shelf, the tubs, and print out my math station games that had been on my computer but were not being put to good use.

What you need:
* Math activities (printables or store bought)
* Tubs or some form of container to store
* Labels - I like organization and number labels just made sense.  Plus I teach my kids to grab a tub (but you can't put it back if you don't like it), if I labeled on the outside what it was, they may not grab it.
* A place to store the tubs - a cubby shelf, regular shelf, or any other space you can find...but shelves work the best.

How it works:
Students can get a math tub off of the shelf.  I tell my students they only grab one tub and they can't put it back until clean up.  Students go sit down somewhere around the room on the floor and get started on the math activity inside.  If they are with a partner they have to whisper.  When it's time to clean up the tubs have to be put back on the shelf in order.

Now, when my students are finished with independent work, they turn it in, get a math tub, and do the hands on math activity inside the tub.  I have a small class this year so they can work with a partner or by themselves.  I am using math activities from TPT and other resources in the tubs.

Currently, I have lots of number sense activities such as this building numbers below.

I am excited to see how this bunch with do with math now that I am adding more hands on practice!

Now go share on the Kinder Tribe blog what worked well for you and pretend it is Wednesday like me!