We have blogged about the math salad bar in the past, but it is a topic that continues to come up when visiting schools. One of the topics we cover in our training and coaching sessions is setting up and managing math workshop efficiently. Many times we find ourselves as teachers taking the time to create games and prepare materials for our students, and then we tuck it away nice and neat on a shelf somewhere. Not only is it time consuming to set up materials every time your students play a certain game, but it doesn’t foster independence in the students when it’s tucked away on a shelf that you have to access.
Math Salad Bar comes with a 15 drawer rainbow cart, 50 sleeve protectors, 16 dry erase labels, and 15 sorting bowls:
Here is a sample of a functioning math salad bar.
The concept of the math salad bar is to create a space for students to EASILY and QUICKLY access math materials needed for math workshop. The sorting bowls need to be readily available for students to “grab and go” with the materials needed for games. Each drawer should be clearly labeled with its contents and could include pictures for early elementary. There should be drawers dedicated to different kinds of materials to support math thinking such as counting buddies, 2 sided chips, clear counters, unifux cubes, ten frames, etc. It is also beneficial to place materials in the bottom drawers that you will be using in upcoming lessons/units that students can use for ‘free play’ beforehand.
Check out my Math Salad Bar page (part of my free Math Workshop Resources) to help explain how to set up your salad bar and check out my Choosing Quality Games page to help explain how to choose “quality” over “quantity” games!
So stop creating more work for yourself, and check out how the salad bar can help you stay organized and sane!
Purchase math salad bar on our website!
