Classroom Routines and Ten-Minute Math Activities

Classroom Routines (K-3) and Ten-Minute Math Activities (3-5) support and balance the in-depth work of each curriculum unit. These brief activities, designed to build over the course of the year, provide practice with current concepts and skills, and review of previously introduced content. Requiring 10-15 minutes of additional daily work outside of math time, these activities “offer ongoing skill building, practice, and review that support the regular math work. They also reinforce the work students have done in previous units and help students increase their repertoire of strategies for mental calculation and problem solving.” (Implementing Investigations at Grade X, p. 7.)

In Grades K-2, there are 4-5 Classroom Routines that occur in a regular rotation. A few Routines are introduced later in the year, and then become part of that rotating set. Grade 3 includes two Classroom Routines, tied to specific activities.

 

Kindergarten Grade 1
  • Attendance
  • Calendar
  • Today’s Question 
    (begins in Unit 2)
  • Patterns on the Pocket Chart
    (begins in Unit 3)
  • Morning Meeting (Schedule, Attendance, Calendar, Weather)
  • Start With/Get To
  • Quick Images 
  • Quick Survey (begins in Unit 4)
  • Tell a Story (begins in Unit 7)
Grade 2 Grade 3
  • What’s the Temperature? (once/week, all year)
  • Class Collection (twice/week, Unit 3 only)

 

In Grades 3-5, each unit includes two Ten-Minute Math Activities, one that focuses on the content of the unit, the other reviewing content from a previous unit.

 

Grade 3 Grade 4
  • Practicing Place Value 
  • More or Less?
  • Guess My Rule
  • What Time Is It?
  • Quick Images
  • Counting Around the Class
Grade 5

*All of the above videos are on the Curriculum in the Classroom page about Classroom Routines and TMMs.

Across the grades, these activities are always initially introduced in the work of a Session. Then, they are intended for use outside of math time e.g. just before or after lunch or recess or at the beginning or end of the day.

Specific suggestions are provided daily, in a box below the Today’s Plan in each Session. Information about the math focus of these activities in any particular unit can be found on the page “Classroom Routines in This Unit (pdf)” or “Ten-Minute Math in This Unit.” Any preparation that is needed is noted in the Investigation Planner. Finally, full-year write-ups for each activity are provided in Implementing Investigations at Grade X. These pages describe the basic activity and its variations and the mathematics they focus on, as well as the materials and any preparation that’s needed.

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