BUILDing the Math Workshop

So sorry to everyone who has e-mailed and asked about BUILD! I have had such a busy and exciting first 6 weeks of school! Here is an entire post dedicated to everything I know about BUILD. Please feel free to leave me a message asking any questions. Thanks for your interest!

BUILD is not a curriculum, it is a management piece for Math Centers. Each letter stands for something different and you choose activities/assignments for students to complete. The BEST thing about BUILD is that you can tweak it to fit your teaching and your classroom.

 

Buddy Games

This is where I put games that my kiddos have practice practice practiced multiple times. They know the expectations: whisper voice, play the right way, play the whole time. My school uses Investigations as our math curriculum, so this goes perfectly b/c the basis of the curriculum is them playing games to master math skills.

Using Manipulatives

This is where I put manipulatives for exploration. For the first few weeks of school I have had pattern blocks and workmats. You could also put play money, Judy Clocks, unifix cubes.

Independent Reading/Work

The title on this one pretty much explains it. My kiddos read math books during this time- and amazingly they really like it. Seemingly way more than Read to Self during Literacy stations. This is where you could also have them working on something pencil and paper if you need them to.

Learning About Numbers

For this one I have hundreds chart games, matching, number scrolls, student made books about numbers.

 

Doing Math

This is where I put a game when we first learn it. After they have played it on their own a good amount of times and I have made sure that the majority of the class knows how to play- then I move it to Buddy Games.

Let me preface this by saying that I am NOT an expert on how you should run your math centers. I can simply tell you what I've done and what works for me! :) Like I said earlier, the best thing about BUILD is that it is easily modified for your classroom.
 

My students go to 2 BUILD rotations a day.
So, in a five day week, they go to each bucket twice. I use a spreadsheet and the students check in with me before we do each rotation to tell me what they want to do. Sometime I have to override it, but they don't seem to mind too much.

I usually see a small group during each rotation. Normally it is the same small group(s) each day, so that means that most weeks, certain kiddos only do each letter once in a week. That doesn't bother me because they are with me for roughly an hour and 15 minutes a week in a small math group getting individualized attention.

Example time frame on a typical day in my classroom:
12:30-12:45 Calendar
12:45-1:00 Whole Group Lesson (usually from Investigations)
1:00-1:15 BUILD Rotation #1 (I pull 3-4 students who need reinforcement on a common topic)
1:15-1:25 Whole Group Meeting (discuss procedures, talk about a strategy, share out, etc.)
1:25-1:40 BUILD Rotation #2 (I pull 3-4 students who need reinforcement on a common topic)
1:40-2:00 Whole Group Lesson (similar to earlier)

It's important for kiddos to get up and DO something. They can't handle whole group instruction for that long. I choose not to do my entire Investigations lesson all in one stretch. (Also, if you use Investigations: for Math Workshop my students do BUILD). I don't know any 6 year old who can sit and listen to me talk for an hour... and I wouldn't want to sit and talk for an hour for that matter! :)

READER QUESTIONS
  

 

I do not own nor claim to own the BUILD concept. I did not create BUILD. I am simply producing management tools and ideas to use for ANY kind of guided math.

Check out some resources for math centers in my store.