Are you looking for math journal prompts and ideas to make your math block the best it can be for your students? This post will walk you through the basics of math journals and how to use them with your students.

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First of all, I am all about getting ahead when it comes to lesson planning! Weekends are too precious to spend every minute preparing for the next week at school.

I have really been thinking this summer about what I can do to save myself some time next school year and what I can try and plan for the big picture, instead of week to week. The first thing that came to my mind was our daily first-grade math journals. This is a great area that I can have planned and organized for the whole school year.

Daily Math Journal

The first part of my math time every day is spent doing a quick problem in our math journals. I love this time because it gets our brains thinking math and gives me a chance to quickly review or reteach previously taught concepts.

The benefits of math journals and daily intentional problem solving are HUGE! I don’t have a lot of time to plan and prep this part of the day, but I want to make sure that I am hitting what I need to! First, let’s talk about setting up math journals.

First Grade Math Journal Set Up

We set up our first-grade math journals are set up at the beginning of the year. I prefer to have my students use a composition book and we just glue this label onto the front of each journal.

Then inside the front cover of their notebook, I staple a Ziploc bag (this size works best) or an envelope to store math tools that we will use all year long.

I label the bag with this math tools label; then print math tools including a number line, tens frame, and a hundred chart on bright card stock. I highly recommend laminating the math tools to ensure durability for the whole school year too!

First Grade Math Journal Prompts Binder

After setting up math journals, students are ready to start using them to solve math problems. I print math journal prompts for the entire school year and keep them organized in a binder.

The binder is organized by math concept and I have a cover page for each of the following math concepts:

• Composing and decomposing numbers to 10
• Place value
• Addition to 20
• Subtraction to 20
• Skip Counting
• Geometry
• Coins
• Graphing
• Measurement and Time
• Addition First Grade Math Concepts (math tools and application, representing numbers, ordering numbers, even and odd numbers, fact families, counting, ten more and ten less, one more and one less, adding three numbers, subtracting three numbers, personal financial literacy)

I like to use these math journal prompts for reteaching and reviewing previously taught math concepts so I like having all of the math concepts available to choose from.

First Grade Math Journal Prompts

Behind each of the concept cover pages is where the real magic lies! Math prompts printed, cut and ready for everyday of the school year!

So on Monday, I can pull a problem from the Subtraction to 20 section to go with our subtraction unit, and Tuesday I can pull a problem from the Addition to 20 section to review addition, and then on Wednesday I can grab a problem from the Composing and Decomposing Numbers section to make sure we didn’t forget that concept that was taught back in September…SO EASY and takes no time at all!

Do you want to know the best part? Every single problem fits perfectly in a little trading card sleeve. Just order these, print, cut, and slide your math problems in! All of the problems are also labeled at the top of the page if you would prefer to just hole punch the problem pages and store them in the binder like that!

I have put together an entire set of First Grade Math Journal Daily Problems. The set contains over 185 math problems that hit all of the first grade math concepts! Each page has 8 identical math problems to cut apart. These aren’t just cut and paste activities. They require critical thinking, using math tools and strategies and students will explain their thinking!

Students will simply glue the problem at the top of their math journal and solve! It’s an easy routine that can be used all year long!

You can find everything seen in this post in this bundle! That includes the math journal labels, tools, the math concept cover pages, and over 185 printable math problems to last you the entire school year! Concepts are also available individually:

First Grade Daily Math Problems: Composing and Decomposing Numbers to 10 
First Grade Daily Math Problems: Place Value
First Grade Daily Math Problems: Addition to 20
First Grade Daily Math Problems: Subtraction to 20
First Grade Daily Math Problems: Skip Counting
First Grade Daily Math Problems: Geometry
First Grade Daily Math Problems: Coins
First Grade Daily Math Problems: Graphing
First Grade Daily Math Problems: Time and Measurement
First Grade Daily Math Problems: More Concepts

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I hope this post inspired you to give math journals and math journal prompts a try with your students this school year!