More about BUILD

I had a few questions about what I do for my minilessons during BUILD and more about my entire Math Block.

I normally break up my BUILD rotations by doing a lesson from Investigations (which is awesome!! SO much better than Envisions, which is what we used last year)- sometimes it is a group activity, sometimes it is a discussion, and sometimes it is a (gasp!) worksheet (albeit, a quick one!).

Sadly, some days we don't even have time for BUILD based on the Investigations lesson for the day, but that is the beauty of BUILD- there are no set rotations and we can do it as little or as often as we like in a week and we can also do BUILD spur of the moment if necessary. It's ok if my kiddos don't get to go every rotation each week because they can just get it the next week. And they LOVE it!

If we haven't done BUILD in a few days- "When are we going to do BUILD?" "Mrs. Thompson are we doing BUILD today?" "I hope we do BUILD!!" They love learning about Math as much as I love teaching it now.

Even if you don't have the Investigations curriculum- there are so many great games out there that you can use in your BUILD buckets.

Here a few I created that you can download for free. (click the pics to download)

     

Here are some more non-thematic (or don't have to be used at a certain time of year) games that I have found on different blogs that I use in my BUILD buckets:

Time Flies by Rachelle at What the Teacher Wants! (love love love this game!)

Odds and Evens Apple Trees by Cara at The First Grade Parade

Race to a Dollar by Kathy at First Grade a la Carte

Scoop and Total/Pinch and Total by Rachelle at What the Teacher Wants!

Anyway, that is just a FEW of the endless suggestions for games for your BUILD buckets that do NOT have to be changed weekly.

If anything you've seen here today is helpful to you, PLEASE let me know!

Who doesn't love comments? :)

-Mrs. Thompson