Math is about more than filling in worksheets. Math is about finding patterns, reasoning, justifying your reasoning and making sense of the world with math. 

Join me today as I discuss Quick Math Warm Ups and how to use them in your math classroom.

In this Episode about Quick Math Warm Ups:

• set your intention for math warm ups
• hold a quick debrief after the math warm up
• use math warm up skills to teach SEL skills 

Math Warm Ups Mentioned:

Alike & Different – Find in my shop here

Which Ones Doesn’t Belong- Find WODB for your grade ( 1st to 6th) here

Number of the Day (aka Today’s Number) can be found here

Decimal of the Day is perfect for 5th graders- Find in my shop here

Why are Math Warm Ups Important?

The point of a math warm up is to get everyone engaged as soon as they walk in the door with meaningful math thinking. Of course math warm ups can be fun, cute, extra practices, etc. However, I think the most important part of math warm ups is that they communicate two things… 

1. You can do math. 
2. Thinking matters more than answers

When you communicate these two ideas to students from the very first moment of math class you are reinforcing the norms and vision for a true mathematician.

Let’s Talk Quick Math Warm Ups

3 Mistakes You’re Making at the Start of Math Class: 

• Wasting precious time – As soon as students come into the classroom they should have something to do. This reduces the walking around, messing around, etc. It also provides students with a job that communicates your values in the classroom. It sets the tone for the rest of class. We don’t want to waste anything thinking time so come in and get started quickly. 

• Not requiring them to do mathematical thinking in the warm up & giving them “busy work” – Deep thinking is possible in quick increments and is more manageable by students. When we ask our students to do complex tasks that require deep thinking for 5 to 8 minutes it feels manageable. Think about doing the dishes… you don’t want to do that, it feels like it might just be the last thing you do on earth because the mountain you must climb is just going to take it all out of you. I mean, I don’t know about you but my brain can be very dramatic when it’s talking me out of things like that. So, you force yourself to do the dishes and it take a total of 4 minutes.
  Math is the same way… when we give students a warm up or math task that looks like it’s going to take forever they’d rather just not even start because “I’m not gonna finish anyway”. Instead we can say to them, you only have to think deeply about this for 5 to 7 minutes. I want to see your thinking, I don’t mind if you finish it all but the most important this is that I see your thinking. Etc. 

• Missing the opportunity to teach math mindset & human being skills – In episode 87 I talked about integrated SEL and how math is the perfect place to teach it. When our students are in math they bring a lot of baggage with them, right? At a young age most of them have already formed an opinion about who they are as mathematicians. So, much of our work is unwriting the false narratives they have and helping them develop their confidence and their self efficacy, or their belief that they can do hard things and be successful. So, don’t miss the opportunity to use quick math warm up to reinforce the SEL and math mindset skills that our students so badly need! 

3 tips on HOW you can use quick math warm ups effectively in your math classroom

1. Set your intention for the math warm up – Is it review, introducing new content, low key pre-assessment, low key assessment, etc. Don’t give work just to give work and be busy work. Instead, give students meaningful math warm ups that you’ve considered the intention or goal for.
   • For example, WODB is one of my favorite math warm ups. I like to use it for all of the intentions I just stated to be honest with you. But if we’re in 4th grade and entering into our fraction unit I might use WODB fractions to review the basics of fractions. I can informally assess what vocabulary they are using in their writing and discussions. This will help me plan for my unit and backfill those skills they may have missed or forgotten without diluting my grade level content.
     
2. Hold a quick debrief after the math warm up – This will allow you to assess and build students’ confidence. A lot of times the students who struggle in math are willing to participate in something like Today’s Number. That’s where you give students a number and they make it in as many ways as they can. They can use visual models, skip counting, equations with any operation, etc. This super open ended math warm up allows students to jump in at whatever point they are at. So, calling on those students who need the boost is the perfect way to build their confidence and self efficacy.
   
3. Use the math warm up to teach human being skills – I’ve said it a lot already, but I don’t want you to miss this opportunity. So, here’s how you could layer the math thinking and the SEL skills. Maybe your intention is to help students see that explaining your thoughts on paper helps your collaboration. That can build your students’ skills in collaboration as well as math reasoning. Layering the skills, integrating them is key. So, you could choose a math warm up like WODB or Alike & Different to have students explain their thinking on paper and then immediately do a turn and talk about their work. This can build in the need to have things written down on your paper in order to share with your classmate.

Mentioned in this episode:

🎙️Episode 87 – Why you need SEL in Math Problem Solving…Now!

📱 Go to my instagram @hellomonamath & share with me how you’re listening! 

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