Full disclosure: I never meant to turn this anchor chart into a center.
I guess it was another one of those things that “just happened”.
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| Number Lines Center |
This chart was my whole week’s lesson on Number Lines. I made it ahead of time, but only showed the kids a section on each day.
- On Monday we practiced before and after.
- On Tuesday we practiced “between”.
- On Wednesday we practiced “+1 and -1”.
- On Thursday we practiced “greater / smaller”
- On Friday, we used the whole chart.
The chart stayed on the wall for a while, and we used it everyday as a warm-up during Math Workshop.
One day I ran out of time to prepare a new Math Center, and out of despair, I decided to use the chart!
The kids had already used it during their “Turn and Talk” practice. All I had to do was to monitor each group for a few minutes each day. I modeled the questions and answers once again, and watched the kids interact with one another. It worked like magic!
Because they had so many questions that they could choose from, the kids absolutely loved spending time at this center.
Of course we moved on to the big number line on our wall, but somehow this center never got old…
You can probably create a much nicer chart than mine, but I hope the idea helps you optimize your time. Just recycle your anchor chart into your next center!
In case you missed them, here are the 3 other posts of this series.
My Fab Five Math Centers! – Part 1
My Fab Five Math Centers! – Part 2
My Fab Five Math Centers! – Part 3
The following links go to free and paid resources that might help you implement counting skills in your classroom:
You can grab a 1st Grade FREE SAMPLE right here! (2nd Grade sample on the works)
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| Free Sample |
If you want to keep this information fresh all year you can assign homework that constantly reviews learned skills. This is the homework I have in case you are interested. It’s 100% Common Core aligned! There is a FREE SAMPLE available for each packet when you check the resource pages.
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| 1st Grade Math Homework |
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| 2nd Grade Math Homework |
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| 3rd Grade Math Homework |
Thank you so much for the fantastic ideas! I'm a first year teacher teaching a 1st and 2nd split. I NEED to do guided math and I think your center ideas will be perfect for my first graders to build skills needed and for my 2nd graders to review. I LOVE LOVE LOVE this. Thank you!
Hey Ashley, thank you so much for sharing your story with me. Remember to start slow, and to never compare yourself with anyone else. Just do your very best, and know that experience is the best teacher…
Have a fabulous school year!
This is AH-MAY-ZING!!! I have been looking for centers for my students to work in that are not a lot of fuss!!! Thank you so much for these great ideas!!
Hey there, and thanks for chiming in! I hope you do use this idea in your classroom. It has saved me so much time, and it makes my students active participants in their learning process. Not to mention that there's no need to be making copies and wasting paper!
Love this! I'm envisioning that you could do something with velcro on the number line part that can be switched for different numbers each week. Great idea – hits on lots of standards and super easy to implement. Thank you!