How to Structure 40-Minute Math Lessons

How to Structure 40-Minute Math Lessons

With young, busy minds in your classroom, it’s essential to keep your students engaged. Beyond Basic Math provides 40-minute lesson packs with a guide to explain each step (check out the lesson pack discussed in this blog HERE). Let’s see how you can structure a 40-minute math lesson using BBM’s “Representing Place Value with Base-10 Blocks”.

Structuring a 40-Minute Math Lesson

1. Warm-Up (5 minutes)

2. Minilesson (20 minutes)

3. Guided Practice (5 minutes)

4. Independent Practice (5 minutes)

5. Assessment (5 minutes)

Warm-Up

Bring students into math class with confidence! By providing a simple activity about one level below ability, you can make your students feel comfortable & secure while getting their brains in math mode.

In this lesson, Beyond Basic Math has students represent number equations from a picture. As seen in the picture, they will be adding 1-digit numbers from 10. This is a great segue into representing numbers with Base-10 blocks!

This worksheet is part of a 5-worksheet pack for 99¢!

You can decide whether your students should work together or independently. When everyone is done, it’s time to start the Minilesson.

Minilesson

This is the “meat and potatoes” of the math content. Here’s where you want to teach the new concept in an engaging and purposeful manner. In BBM’s lesson, it’s recommended that you provide your students with Base-10 blocks.

This Minilesson is available for 99¢!

First, ask students to represent a 1-digit number with Base-10 blocks. Our lesson uses 4. Students should recognize that the small cubes represent 1 and present 4 1-blocks. The guide encourages you to ask students why they can’t represent “40” with 1-blocks.

Next, students are presented with a number and two Base-10 representations. Can they pick the correct answer? Finally, they are asked to construct a 2-digit number with their blocks.

Grab this Minilesson for 99¢ HERE!

Guided Practice

After the Minilesson, it’s time to engage students together as they explore the new concepts. BBM provides a puzzle activity for this lesson. Half the puzzle pieces contain a 2-digit number; the other half contain a Base-10 representation.

You can get this puzzle activity for 99¢!

There are several ways to use this puzzle activity! You can pass out the pairs randomly and have students find their match. Or, students can split half the pieces and play war! Regardless, the goal is to have them associate Base-10 diagrams with 2-digit numbers.

Purchase this activity for 99¢ HERE!

Independent Practice

Now it’s time to see what your students have learned. If you know your students well already, you might consider providing differentiated activities. In this lesson, BBM provides worksheets above, below, and at grade level.

Students working at grade level will match Base-10 diagrams to 2-digit numbers. This is an opportunity for them to work independently, demonstrating to you that they are mastering the content.

To avoid frustration or boredom, BBM also supplies worksheets one grade above and below level. This allows your classroom to run smoothly and meet all your students’ needs.

Assessment

Finally, it’s time to assess your classroom. BBM provides a five-problem worksheet matching Base-10 diagrams to 2-digit numbers. No matter the ability, all your students will take this assessment, even if they completed a differentiated worksheet before.

Collect your students’ worksheets and tally the scores. How did they do? Did they meet the learning objective? What needs to be retaught?

You can purchase all the worksheets associated with this lesson for 99¢ HERE!

Conclusion

Congratulations! You’ve just learned how to teach a 40-minute math lesson. If you want this lesson plan, complete with resources, guide, and virtual learning plan, you can purchase it for $2.49 HERE.

Purchase this lesson pack for $2.49 on Teachers Pay Teachers!

Here’s to more successful math lessons!