Don’t get me wrong. We all know students benefit from some spiraling of grade level skills. But if you aren’t using NOTD time to present your students with gradually scaffolded skill practice that is embedded with reasoning and concept development then you are missing an incredibly opportunity!
…because it can be simple and sophisticated!
Why I spent a whole year creating new Number of the Day Routines for my first through fifth grade teachers:
As a math coach, I am asked the same questions over and over again. Many of them can be answered with, “because they haven’t yet developed the number knowledge AND the number strategies that you are trying to build on.” It’s like you’re trying to build a skyscraper in the sand. And the tide is coming in.
So I took all the big ideas from a grade level… and researched best practices in developing them. Then I created daily number activities that would gradually increase in rigor throughout the year. Baby steps. But I infused them with open-ended reasoning that lets your students create their own structure of numbers… and build number sense. Finally, I took the biggest “issues” in each grade level, and I gave them center stage in the grade level prior.
First Grade TemplatesFirst Grade Templates
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These (grade specific) NOTD Templates mix traditional skill practice with flexible number work and reasoning. Little ones should be reasoning about number lines and exploring parts & wholes. Templates also include WODB?, 2 Truths and a Lie, and a much more sophisticated version of Mystery Number that builds vocabulary authentically. All grade levels develops number line concepts AND hundreds chart understanding.
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Second graders need TONS of time developing their mental hundred chart… and extending it to bigger numbers. Grade 2 is pretty much our kids last chance to spend their days building number knowledge and number strategies. (Next year will focus on multiplication/division knowledge and strategies and fraction knowledge and strategies) The Grade 1 templates are a worthy choice for struggling second graders.
In second grade, I feel like a Catcher in the Rye... trying to save the children getting too close to the cliff.
These Grade 2 templates offer SO MANY different options! You might use some every day for a week… and choose to repeat it often. Others may be used only two or three times. As a math coach, I couldn’t be happier with the high level thinking, blended with essential skill practice! As a teacher, I am ecstatic that it comes in a ready-to-go package!
There are multiple ways of differentiating. Students can be working on different templates AND using different numbers. (I included review of first grade skills, and a gentle introduction to rounding and other third grade skills) Some students may use slightly larger numbers… other might use bigger numbers than they would ever see in class! I often work with a few different ones at a time. One for morning work, and another is a center choice activity. Have some fun with number selection in centers! Let them roll three dice and make their own numbers! Or write random numbers on ping pong balls and let them pick from a brown bag or plastic jar!
These Grade 2 templates offer over 50 different pages for you to print and slip into a page protector to write & wipe every day. Simply write a number on the board at the start of the day. I typically offer two numbers that have some similarities (both odd and multiples of 5 for example). Your students will love creating their own mystery numbers and you will love how they will step up their math vocabulary! They will have fun with 23 is the answer. What is the question? And you will love how it develops their problem solving skills! You will see incredible math thinking that you had NO IDEA some students were capable of! And you will find some major misconceptions that you might never have caught with traditional skill practice.
Third & Fourth Grade Templates
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Third and fourth grade students STILL need to work with the 120 chart. (Give your older students a blank chart starting with 80 and see what happens. You would think I’m so sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but you needed to know.)
This is SO IMPORTANT because now is the time we need to begin counting by halves, thirds, fourths and sixths. Fill in a hundred chart with fraction numbers and compare patterns!
Fourth and Fifth Grade Number Templates (Middle School Intervention)
In fourth and fifth grade, it is time to count by decimal numbers and really develop a solid understanding of those numbers between numbers! These are the BIGGEST TEMPLATE PACKS! There are Fraction Number of the Day templates, Decimal number of the Day Templates, Product of the Day and Templates that are fabulous for EXPONENTIALLY BIG Numbers! Not only will your students practice the basic skills they need, they will extend their understanding of the concept! The visual nature of these templates, combined with the scaffolding and repetition of big ideas is a winner!
I love using a giant wall size 120 Chart during my counting circles AND I love using it with this NOTD center! If students finish the number template, they can work with their partner to fill in the Giant 120 chart… skip counting by .3 or 3/8. (Don’t have one? Grab this DIY Freebie and make your own!)
