If the phrase “guided math for kindergarten” brings up visions of color-coded chaos or a mountain of manipulatives, you’re not alone. Guided math is powerful—but it can also feel overwhelming when you’re just getting started (or trying to stay organized mid-year!).
I’m breaking down the top 10 questions teachers ask about running guided math in kindergarten—covering everything from small groups to storage to standards alignment. And yes, there’s a free curriculum guide waiting for you at the end.
Guided math is more than just small group instruction—it’s a whole approach to helping every student succeed at their own pace. With the right tools and structure, you can deliver targeted lessons, encourage hands-on exploration, and still make time for whole-group teaching and fluency practice.
Let’s dive into the most common questions K-1 teachers ask us when they’re getting started.
1. Do you have a year-long plan for guided math?
Yes! We created a full scope and sequence to take the guesswork out of planning. You can grab our curriculum guide at the end of this blog post.
Yep! Our guided math units are designed around Common Core standards, but the strategies and activities are a great fit even if your state uses different standards—they’re grounded in best practices and real classroom experience.
Here’s the flow we use in kindergarten:
These vocabulary cards are included in the unit. We use them in a pocket chart during the month, then the get retired to the cabinets above my cubbies. We can always take them down again.
Guided math comes with a lot of pieces—but it doesn’t have to be overwhelming:
Each unit includes ready-made math lessons that are perfect for reteaching, extending, or supporting specific learners. You don’t have to wing it—we’ve got the plans done for you.
Here are a few images of the lessons in action!
After the math mini-lesson, students explore with hands-on learning tasks.
Students have a response page they also do following the exploration.
There are 10 units total, each covering essential K-1 math topics through a hands-on, direct instruction style approach:
No problem! The units follow a similar structure, so they’re easy to align across both grade levels. The 1st grade sets are great for spiraling or supporting intervention in K too.
Not at all! While the skills build over time, you can absolutely jump around—as long as students have the foundational skills needed.
As you know, you can learn a lot by watching your students as they practice, but I know you also need to collect data.
Each unit has an assessment at the end of set of lessons. Because the skills are spirally taught, we give students plenty of time to build mastery.
These assessments are also preloaded to ESGI!
This image below shows just a few of the assessments that are included in your ESGI subscription. ALSO if you use our Guiding Kinders Kindergarten Math units, I have written unit assessments for ESGI as well! That was easy… right?
Download the FREE Kindergarten Curriculum Guide and check out our most-loved math workshop tools:
My teaching career allowed me to experience teaching in different classroom environments and grades. My heart belongs to early childhood education. My job is to make teaching FUN, ENGAGING, and EASIER. Welcome!
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13 Responses
Excited to hear there will be a first grade version. 🙂
I have bought the units that you have finished so far and LOVE them!! Thank you for all of your hard work. These units are amazing!!
Ya'll are awesome.
That is all.
I am going to have to look into investing in these units! Will you bundle them once all ten are finished? I am thinking of using instructional money next year 😉
Jada
Daisy Days for Learning
Thanks so much for this post! I have all of these units for my classroom and absolutely love them!!! The only thing I'm unsure of is when and where do you use the number lines? I don't see them mentioned in the daily plans anywhere! Thanks!
There are ketchup and mustard bottle cut outs in the teacher section of the dollar tree that will be perfect for your partner up idea!
What a great post! I am so happy you shared how you organize your lessons and materials. As someone new to kindergarten, I am not used to the amount of "stuff" I've accumulated! Thank you!
I LOVE these math units! I will definitely need to organize them in binders as you have done. That was a bit of a "DUH" moment for me (they are in file folders right now)! Thank you for putting so much time adn hard work into this! Also, I didn't realize how old and cruddy my balance scales were until I saw yours!
Tiffany
I love your math units. I am in the process of revamping my lesson plan template for small group lesson plan. Do you have a template for planning your small groups that you love?
How long after the first day of school do you begin using the Guided Math Workshop with your students? Do you let them get acclimated with school for a few weeks then begin?
I will start the math workshop on the first week of school. It is designed to ease in for those little guys. I would image my first lesson will happen around day 3 or 4 of school. We spend the first few days of school, just figuring out that I (the teacher) am the boss! Don't they all seem to wander around? I need my rest to gear up for that, but it is a fun ride!
Probably a silly questions, I have a few about how you break up the math unit lessons. I was wondering how much time you allot for the mini-lesson, whole group exploration and independent practice. Do the children complete the independent work after whole group exploration? Or do they complete it in small groups during the whole group instruction? I’ve enjoyed using them! I love how you tie in literacy and songs into the lessons.
Thanks,
Kathy
Hi Kathy, I usually scheduled 30-40 mins a day for the whole enchilada! LOL