Today I am sharing all about the whole group math mini lesson in 1st grade! In our first grade classroom, we use a guided math structure for teaching math. We start with a short whole group math mini lesson and then spend the rest of our math block in small groups and math rotations. Teaching math in this way allows me to easily differentiate my instruction for all of my students. It also makes math time a lot more fun and engaging!

In this post I’m going to share 5 tips for making your whole group mini lessons effective and engaging for your learners! I’ll share how I plan my whole group lessons and some of my favorite mini lesson activities in 1st grade. I’ve also got a free Math Toolkit for you!

Math Mini Lesson Tip 1: Keep it mini!

Mini lessons are when I am teaching our first grade standards to all of my students in a whole group setting. Mini lessons are important because they help to create a community of mathematicians in our classroom! I love gathering all of my students on the rug together to teach a new concept.

It is important to remember that Mini Lessons should be short and sweet! I keep my lessons between 10-15 minutes. This keeps students engaged and gives plenty of time for the most important part of Guided Math: Small group instruction (where the real magic happens!) 

I like to think of the math mini lesson as an introduction to the skill. Not all students are going to master the skill during the mini lesson, and that’s okay! That is what small groups are for. The mini lesson is simply to introduce, model, and quickly practice a math skill or strategy. It gives students exposure so we can really dive in deep during small group time. 

Math Mini Lesson Tip 2: Use interactive slides to teach

My absolute favorite way to plan and keep my mini lessons on track is by using interactive slides to teach my whole group lessons. When I have everything ready to go on the slide, it makes teaching the lesson simple and it’s a perfect visual for my students. I also love saving my slides and having them ready to go for the next year!

Our math mini lesson slides always include the following:

⭐️ Student Objective – This is our learning goal we are working on during that lesson. Sometimes the goal stays the same throughout the week and sometimes it changes daily. I also like to put any materials students will need for the lesson on this slide. I have the slide pulled up as we are transitioning to math time so that students know what materials they should have out. This saves a lot of time!

⭐️ Vocabulary – The next slide is our vocabulary slide. Each day we review the important math vocabulary words from our current unit.  I try to add motions and movement to vocabulary instruction whenever I can! 

⭐️ Modeling – I use our teaching slides to explicitly model the math skill or strategy I want students to learn.

⭐️ Guided Practice – Students try out the skill by completing a few practice problems. I make sure not to do too many so that our lesson stays mini!

Math Mini Lesson Tip 3: Turn and Talk

For our math mini lessons, each of my students has an assigned spot on the rug next to a math partner. During our mini lesson, we do frequent turn and talks to share our thinking with a partner. This helps cut down on time rather than calling on students to share individually for every question. It also helps all students participate and stay engaged.

At the beginning of the year, we go over procedures for how to do a turn and talk. Students learn to turn their body to face their partner. They learn to listen when their partner is speaking. I also teach them talking stems to use with the partner such as “I think..because..” “The strategy I used was…” “I agree with you because…” We also learn how to respectfully disagree with our partner and help our partner without giving an answer right away.

Sometimes we switch up who our partner is using Math Match cards. These are perfect to review a skill that we are working on. For our math warm up, I give each student a card and they walk around the classroom quietly looking for their match. When they find their partner, they find a spot on the rug and sit next to each other!

Math Mini Lesson Tip 4: Dry Erase Boards and Math Tool Kits (FREEBIE!)

Our favorite math mini lesson tools that we use almost daily are dry erase boards and makers. I like for my students to be able to do the practice problems on their boards so that everyone is actively engaged and participating.

At the beginning of the school year, I like to give all my students a small Math Tool Kit with some simple math tools and manipulatives. These are items that they can use during our Math Mini Lesson time or when they are working independently. It’s SO nice for them to have easy access to the tools rather than passing them out each time.

NOTE: We don’t use a lot of manipulatives during the whole group portion of guided math – It’s easier to save for small group time. But occasionally we’ll use cubes or counters during a mini lesson.

Grab the FREE Math Toolkit Here!

Math Mini Lesson Tip 5: Get students up and moving

I love to incorporate movement activities into our mini lessons whenever I can! After working on a skill, I like to practice with cooperative learning games.

Some of our favorite are:

💗 Find my Match (talked about earlier in the post!)

💗 Quiz Quiz Trade – I give each of my students a task card. Students walk around our classroom with one hand up. They find a partner and give a high five. Students then quiz each other on their task cards. Once both partners have solved the task card, they trade cards and move on to find a new partner. I love this game because all students are engaged and participating!

I use my Solve the Room cards to play Quiz Quiz Trade with students! (I love these cards because they can be used in so many ways. We also use them as a weekly math center!)

💗 Back to Back – Students sit back to back with their math partners (sometimes we do this right after we play Find My Partner!) I’ll give students a problem and they’ll solve it individually, then we’ll count to 3 and they’ll turn around and share their work with their partner! 

💗 Stop and Solve – At each friends seat I place a math worksheet on a skill that we have been learning. I’ll play music and students will work around the room. When I stop the music students also stop and go to the nearest seat and solve one problem on the worksheet! (I challenge them to try to find a problem that they haven’t solved yet!) Here are my favorite math worksheets to use to review math skills!

I also love showing students little video clips and songs during math mini lessons! Some of my favorites are:

• Number Rock on Youtube – Their place value song is probably the most catchy song I have ever heard in my life. My kids would beg to listen to it every day and knew every single word. Warning: It will 100% get stuck in your head.
• Brain Pop – I love how concisely they explain concepts and the math language they use! My students love watching these and at the end of the week we’ll do the Quiz that goes with the videos on our dry erase boards. 

After watching, we’ll apply what we’ve learned!

I hope this post gave you some fresh, new ideas for your whole group math mini lessons.

If you want to grab first grade math mini lesson slides for the whole year, check out my Happy Math First Grade Guided Math Units!

An engaging math curriculum that includes no prep mini lesson slides, small group activities, centers, worksheets, anchor charts, assessment, and more! FIND IT HERE!

Want more help Launching your math centers at the beginning of the year? Grab this free Guided Math Launch Guide!

In this guide, I’ll walk you through step by step how to start Guided Math and math centers at the beginning of the year in your classroom!

It includes:

• ⭐️ A Guided Math Resource Library
• ⭐️ A Breakdown of the Guided Math components
• ⭐️ Tips to create the perfect schedule
• ⭐️ Tips for grouping students and gathering supplies
• ⭐️ Weekly and Daily plans for the first 3 weeks of Guided Math
• ⭐ ️ Everything needed to establish strong routines that will last all year long!