If there is anything that you should know about me, it’s that I’m all about low-prep teaching options. I love saving time while still providing engaging lessons for my students! Math stations are no different. I love running math stations in my classroom, whether I’m teaching 3rd-grade or middle schoolers. Math stations are one of those things that can be incredibly time-consuming if you let it. That’s why I’m sharing 3 low prep math station rotation ideas in this blog post.
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Math Learning Centers Set Up
After you set up math learning centers in your classroom, the ongoing planning of math stations gets easier. However, it can be time-consuming to create new math games for students, with printing, cutting laminating all things. Math stations can also require all the copies, activities, and extensions not to mention planning for small group instruction.
Sounds exhausting?
You’re not alone!
The first year I did math station rotations I was doing all the things. Every. Single. Week. And I was burnt out! I saw how powerful the math station rotation teaching was for my students. They were engaged in class, and the number of off-task behaviors dropped dramatically. Talk about what classroom management can do!
But I couldn’t maintain the amount of work I was doing on nights and weekends. I couldn’t keep this level of work up all year.
So I began searching for low prep math station rotation ideas. I needed ideas that didn’t require all the laminating and cutting. I needed ideas that I could print and go. Even better if there was no printing! The ideas that I’m sharing today fit the bill. So if you are in the same boat I was in, then this post is for you!
Math Station Rotation Idea: Technology
This is probably the easiest math station rotation option. If you have an online math program that you have to use, this is a great way to incorporate that time into your day or week. Most programs will have students have a pretest of sorts that then determines their level of certain skills. They can assign lessons built to any gaps in learning. Because so much of this happens automatically, this is a low prep option for math stations. If your school doesn’t have a required program, there are a bunch of free options. I love Prodigy and IXL for this type of technology station.
If you want to run a flipped classroom, a technology station is a great way to make that happen in the classroom. I talk more about a flipped classroom in this post but if you are trying to make videos for each skill this can be time consuming. I have great luck on finding premade videos on Khan Academy, Ed Puzzle, Brain Pop, or even Youtube.
I’ve created a list of my favorite YouTube channels for students below:
Math Station Rotation Ideas: Print and Play Games
One of the students’ favorite math station rotation options was the partner game station. They loved getting to talk with their friends and play a game with some competition. I didn’t love that these games required so much cutting of cards or pieces, laminating game boards, and complicated rules. I wanted my students to have fun, while still keeping the focus on math skills.
So, I created a variety of print and play math games for this reason. They have different problems for students to choose from to solve. They each have a simple set of rules. And I made enough for all the standards! Tic Tac Toe, 4 in a Row, Double Dice, and Wordy Land are all my students’ favorite games AND they just require a few copies on my end.
I also love these games in particular because it is easy for students to pick up. That was another drawback to my old way of math stations; students never knew how to play the game. So students were spending more time learning a game than focusing on math. It also didn’t help that students were trying to learn a new math game every couple of days. So along with new concepts, students were learning new games. They didn’t get much math practice out of the old ways of math learning centers.
Tic Tac Toe Math Games That Are Fun
Tic Tac Toe on the other hand is easy to pick up and students have already learned it. I haven’t met a student who didn’t know Tic Tac Toe, so really I just had to teach them to solve a problem and then check with their partner before taking a turn. After setting up this routine at the beginning of the year, students can play Tic Tac Toe all year long. The concepts change up throughout the year but students are essentially playing the same game.
These games have been such a game-changer for me in my upper elementary classroom! With no prep on my part but high engagement for students, this is the best of the teaching world. Be sure to check out my free set of Tic Tac Toe Games here.
Word Problem of the Day/Week/Month
I am a huge proponent of incorporating math word problems into the classroom regularly. The more exposure students have to word problems the less scary they become. One of the ways I use word problems is as a math station rotation.
This is a low prep math center idea because I can post the word problem on our online learning platform. Or print a copy of the word problem and post it on the wall. In middle school, I run math stations once a week, so the monthly option works for me right now. That means I only have to print out 10 word problems and slide them into a page protector. I hang the page protector up and students can see the word problem for the month.
You can also switch out word problems each week or even each day if you want to. If you post them digitally, the prep is minimal. I also don’t have a specific sheet that students solve these on. I usually just say it on the back of their independent work page or on a slip of loose-leaf paper.
Other Low Prep Math Station Rotation Ideas
Want more ideas? These teacher bloggers and YouTubers have even more low-prep ideas for you to take and tweak.
- Math Centers Made Easy for ALL grade levels!
- My Go-To Low Prep Math Centers for 2nd-5th Grade
- 20 No Prep Math Activities
- Math Centers Made Easy: Low Prep, No Stress, More Time
- Low Prep Math Centers
- Switch Out Math Stations in 30 Seconds
What low prep math station rotation options do you use in your classroom? Drop your response in the comments or hop on over to Instagram and connect.
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