Sarah here from A Rocky Top Teacher. One of my blogging besties, Jen from Sparkling in Second, is embarking on her new journey as a Mrs. That’s right! Our Ms. Cullen is getting married! BIG congrats to you girlie! While Jen is away enjoying marriage bliss, some of her blogger peeps are taking over her blog for a special event!
My “something borrowed” is Classroom Calendar Math. I “borrowed” this idea and adapted it to meet the needs of my kiddos in my classroom. Hopefully, after this post, you will want to “borrow” it, too!
I am a classroom calendar junkie. Yup..even in good ole’ second grade. In fact, I think it is safe to say that I would still do calendar if I was an upper elementary or middle school teacher. Do you have/use a classroom calendar? If you do..I am smiling at you. If not…keep reading and hopefully I can convince you that it is a classroom routine MUST!
I didn’t do calendar routines at all my first year of teaching. I had the pretty themed calendar with the date, weather, and switchable cards all cut and laminated. I would change them out and feel good about having a calendar displayed in my room. I didn’t do the whole “routine” because I just didn’t have time. See, I still had the vision of my mom’s preschool class sitting on a rug and singing about the days of the week stuck in my head. I just couldn’t imagine it going any other way. Call me blonde. Call me silly. I was missing the point. Then, I am came across this picture on Pinterest and BOOM! The the ideas started smacking me on the head. Literally-pretty sure I hit myself on the head.
My kiddos struggled with dates, time, money, number sense, graphing, past/present/future. So, why not use a calendar routine to help us hit all of these points over and over again?
The idea stuck. I took the above picture (have never been able to find the link), and I created my own version (below). Every day (usually) my kiddos and I have a “calendar” routine that we do together. At the beginning of the year, I do a lot of modeling. Then, I assign a class calendar helper. Towards the end of the year, the kiddos do it themselves.
We cover the following topics during our calendar routine-
*month
*day
*year
*number of the day
*today’s date
*today’s digital date
*Yesterday was, today is, tomorrow will be
*daily pattern
*odd/even
*less than, greater than
*word form
*tallies
*number sentences
*money
*time
*expanded notation
*graph/word problems
Once we determine the date and record it on the appropriate section, I ask the students different questions in regards to the calendar. How many days are in this month? If today is Tuesday, March 18th-what will the date be two weeks from today? David left for a trip on March 17th. He will be gone for 10 days. What day will he return on? Etc. There are tons of TPT products out there from awesome creators who can help you get started on specific questions to ask during this portion of the routine.
After we go over the date, we move on to the place value section of the bulletin board. There is a new number of the day every time we do our calendar routine. If the number of the day is 117 then all of the sections in green, blue, yellow, and dark pink will somehow relate back to 117. 116 is less than 117 or 117<345. We do tallies at the beginning of the school year when we do two-digit numbers. When we are no longer able to draw 117 tallies(for the sake of time and space) we change to model form. Our number sentences usually have to do with a skill that we are working on in math at that time.
I don’t start the year off using the time and money sections. These get added in as the school year progresses. But the number of the day can be used here, too. If the number of the day is 210 then I may show 2:10 on the analog clock and ask the students to show me how to write it on the digital clock. I may ask them to make $2.10 using only coins. What coins could you use?
This is one of those classroom routines that you MUST make time for. K-2, 3-5….middle school. It. Is. Worth. It! I am obsessed with calendar because it provides my students with a continuous “spiral review” of skills that they need to know. For example, I spend 30 seconds to 1 minute for a few months going over the telling time section of the calendar with my kiddos. They don’t realize it, but we are having mini-lessons on telling time. When we get to our time unit, many of my students already have some sort of understanding of the clock and time which means we can pick right up and run with the unit. After we cover proper nouns and language mechanics, I no longer allow days of the week or months of the year to begin with lower case letters. They know not to do this because they can pull from previous learning skills in class and apply it to our calendar routine. They know how to write the date on a friendly letter because we practice it during our routine. We never forget place value because we cover it in multiple forms during calendar. I could go on and on.
I love it. We sing, we dance, and the kiddos are eventually the ones who will start “leading” the routine. We build a sense of community when we learn like this, and the students get the opportunity to show what they know and grow as the little learners that they are.
It is a process. It takes time to build the routine so that it runs smoothly. At the beginning of the school year, we do calendar each day. It may take 15 minutes, but it is 20 minutes well spent. By the end of the year, we may do calendar 3 times a week because we use other components(like my number talk). The routine may only last 5-10 minutes.
I have never made of video of our classroom calendar routine, but I will try my best to tape the kids in action and post it up on the blog in the near future.
Before you go- hop on over to my blog and tell me either 1) how you use calendar in your classroom or 2)how you would like to start incorporating it in the future. I would love to hear from you!
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