Michelle’s Classroom Tour: Math Center

I’m so excited to talk about my math center instruction!

For starters, my classroom is a TK-1st grade autism classroom. I structure our day with six different centers, which makes for a nicely structured environment. My centers include various subjects such as independent tasks, math, language arts, and play. Due to staffing, I only have two teacher-led centers. One of my teacher-led centers focuses solely on math skills and IEP goals for my students. I am excited to show you what we do at my math center!

Easy Matching Weekly Workbooks

$These are the Easy Matching Weekly Workbooks on a table displayed with Monday through Friday. I use The Autism Helper's Easy Matching Weekly Workbooks at my math center.$

The Autism Helper Easy Matching Weekly Workbooks are an amazing activity to use at my math center. I have a lot of students in my classroom so I have to have groups of 1-4 students at each center. This can be challenging when students are in primary grades, like mine. While one adult works closely with one or two students, another student or students may be working on an Easy Matching Weekly Workbook – which is quite helpful. When doing this, I make sure to alternate which students we work with so all students get an equal opportunity to be taught.

Why I love Easy Matching Weekly Workbooks: Each workbook has different activities at the same skill level so the student or child can do one workbook a day and not get bored. The easy matching tasks are great to build independent work skills, fine motor abilities, and task initiation.

Leveled Daily Curriculum

$This is a photo of the level 0.5 and level 1 leveled daily math curriculum.$

The Autism Helper Math Leveled Daily Curriculum is a must in my classroom because it plans out my math instruction for the ENTIRE YEAR. There is a page of work to do each day of the school year. I love to pair these with supplemental activities such as manipulative objects, file folder activities, and TouchMath. In my classroom, I use the Level 0.5, Level 1, Level 1.5, and Functional Math Leveled Daily Curriculums.

Level 0.5 is perfect for my students who have minimal or emerging writing skills. It was created specifically for students who need a resource that does not require writing, has larger tracing options, and slowly builds in skill complexity.

Why I love Leveled Daily Curriculum:

There are 8 included units plus a review unit! Each unit includes:

– a pre-test and post-test

– grading rubric with a data-based decision-making component

– anchor charts and counting pages

– 20 activities with supplemental activity suggestions

Additionally, the math Leveled Daily Curriculum provides AMAZING data and work samples for IEP meetings. Finally, to determine which level is best for my students, I use TAH Curriculum Skills Matrix.

Number Identification, Counting, and 1:1 Correspondence

$This is a photo of number dab it.$

The Autism Helper’s Leveled Daily Curriculum works best when paired with supplemental activities. To supplement the curriculum at my math center, I use many different number counting cards and manipulative counting objects. I also love the fun and engaging activities in Made for Me Math and Made for Me Literacy by Especially Education. The Number Dab It pages from Tara West are a fun and engaging way to practice number identification.

My Pop It activity is from Krafty in Kinder and my counting activities are from Teaching Special Thinkers.

Addition and Subtraction

$This is a picture of the TouchMath tactile materials I use at my math center.$

$This is a picture of the TouchMath worksheets I use at my math center.$

$This is a photo of the Subtraction Strategies book I use at my math center.$

$The subtraction strategies book I use at my math center. This is a photo of the page that teaches ten frames.$

TAH Leveled Daily Curriculum includes addition and subtraction activities. At my math center, I love teaching my students how to add and subtract using TouchMath strategies. To do this, I use many different tactile activities and worksheets. One of my favorite TouchMath bundles is this one from Especially Education. My students also love addition and subtraction learning tools and games from Lakeshore Learning. To learn more about TouchMath and why I love it, read this post from Sasha.

Pro Tip: You can make ANY worksheet into a reusable work task with lamination and velcro!

iPad Apps and Computer Games

Sometimes we need to use iPads and computers at my math center, and that’s ok! On those days, I use the Number Blocks and TouchMath apps, which my students love. My students also love the Teach Your Monster Number Skills app/game to use with their Chromebooks. Another great website I use is 99math. On 99math, my students can compete with each other and practice their addition and subtraction skills at the same time! So fun!

What do you use for your math center? Do you have any questions about what I use? Let me know below. Thanks for reading!