Instructional Routines
Instructional routines provide a pre-established structure for engaging with a mathematical task.
When both students and teachers know and can anticipate the steps of a routine, attention can be fully
focused on mathematical exploration and reasoning. Visit this collection to explore some of our favorite
instructional routines and see them in action in Reel Classrooms!
Counting Routines
Counting routines provide opportunities for students to learn counting sequences and notice patterns of, and make connections between, counting words and symbols.
Choral Counting
Counting is an essential foundation for all mathematics. Furthermore, the ways and range in which students count is always expanding. Students count forward or back, by 1s or by multiples, by 10s or 100s, even by fractions! As they count, they uncover patterns and structures in our number system.
Counting Collections
By counting small collections, young learners develop early counting principles, such as 1-1 correspondence and cardinality. As students grow more sophisticated in their thinking, they can count larger and “messier” collections, they develop a deeper understanding of the structure of numbers.
Rekenrek Routines
A Rekenrek, also called a “bead rack” or “number rack”, uses the organization and color coding of beads to support students in seeing the 5 and 10 structure of numbers and to use those structures to efficiently add and subtract. The rekenrek routines below offer classroom structures for engaging students in meaningful use of the rekenrek.
Fluency Routines - Developing Computational Fluency through Strategy-Based Instruction
Procedural Fluency is being able to choose and use an efficient strategy to solve a problem. The routines below provide opportunites for students to learn, choose, and refine computational strategies.
Justifying Routines
Justifying routines require students to explain their reasoning, critique the reasoning of others, and either defend or adjust their own reasoning. These routines foster critical thinking, build conceptual understanding, and promote mathematical discourse.