Guided Math Part Four: The Math Notebook for Student Organization

Guided Math Part Four: The Math Notebook

This post on Guided Math is about my saving grace with student organization, The Math Notebook.  Without this resource, I believe I would have chaos in my classroom.  During the Guided Math period, the students will go through a multitude of activities in a week.  The Math Notebook helps them to organize all of their work in one central location, aside from the answer sheets for the math games and task cards.

The Math Notebook

The picture above shows the front cover of The Math Notebook.  I went with a circus theme, since our school-wide theme is the circus.  Since I teach two separate classes, I have chosen two separate colored covers for the math notebooks, so that each class can clearly be distinguished.

Tabs Used for the Notebook

The above picture shows the tabs I used to section off The Math Notebook.  These are permanent tabs by Redi-Tag Laser Tabs.  They hold very well and I'm excited to use them with my math notebooks.  As you can see, I have the notebook sectioned off into four sections: Weekly Calendar, Center Log, Fact Practice, and Math Journal.

Calendar Sheet for the Weekly Calendar Center

This picture shows the calendar sheet that I use for my Weekly Calendar center.  As I described in my previous post, the sheet is sectioned off into different problems labeled A through M.  The students complete one of these sheets a week.

Center Log

This picture shows a center log that the students fill out as they rotate through the centers over the course of the week.  The students have to check that they completed it and label with the date, and then they must complete a summary of what they did in that center.  This is a form of proof that they completed the center.  The students complete this every week and turn it in with their other artifacts from the centers of the week.

Fact Practice Sheet

This sheet is a fact practice sheet.  Students will time themselves for one minute and see how many problems they can complete correctly.  The students will complete one timed test per week.

Math Daily Journal

This picture shows the Section Cover for the Math Daily Journal section.  Following this section cover, there are white papers.  Each day, students must complete a math reflection question in their daily journal.  They must have the date on the entry, and they must have all entries completed and turned in by the end of the day.  They have one entry per day.

Stay Tuned for Guided Math Part Five: Assessment