My recent posts on my literacy block routine and sight word routine posts have been very popular, so I want to continue that series with my calendar routine! And yes, our calendar is mustache-tastic, of course! Do you expect anything else?! And yes, our calendar carpet is PINK! It is my favorite color! I created the calendar components to match our class theme and meet the needs of our calendar time.
Our calendar routine kicks off our math block. We have a 90 minute math block and we use the balanced math model. The components of balanced math are mental math, math review, concept/skill lesson and closure. The calendar routine is both mental math and math review. Our calendar time covers many common core math standards and hits those standards each day. This constant review builds a strong foundation in number sense for my students.
Early in the year, I was in charge of the calendar. The ‘staches provided answers and ideas, but I was the one who was creating the calendar. Now, the students are in charge of the calendar. Each day I have a scribe who creates the calendar. I serve as a guide by the side, but the students are in charge. As the year progresses, we continue to add skills to our calendar. Our calendar time takes about 10-15 minutes depending on the student who is doing the writing. Some students just take longer to write than others, and that is completely OK!
The first skill we address is the date. The scribe points to the month and the ‘staches say the month. Then we count to the date. The scribe points to each number as we count. This is great for one to one correspondence and number recognition. After we count to the date, we say the whole date. Example: October 1, 2013. We repeat and then I ask for a volunteer to say the date.
Next is today, yesterday and tomorrow.
The students say “Today is…” and name the day. Then they say “Yesterday was…” and say what yesterday was. Finally, they say “Tomorrow will be…” and say what tomorrow will be. Then we read all three of the days. Then I ask for a volunteer to read the three.
To assist with this I have the days of the week posted in our calendar area.
After our date we move to our number of the day. I pick a student to give a number of the day from 1-20. The scribe writes the number, shows what the number looks like with pictures, builds a ten frame and we decide if the number is even or odd. Eventually we will add tally marks, the number word, greater than/less than and counting on and counting back to our number of the day.
This number of the day has really strengthened our one to one counting. Drawing the pictures and building the ten frame has been such a great tool for the students. I also love eager we are to help. If a student is struggling with writing a number or counting, the ‘staches jump in to help.
I am also so proud of how well we understand even or odd. I teach my ‘staches that even means everyone has a dance partner. If someone doesn’t have a dance partner, the number is odd! This works so well! YAY for dancing! (Even though I don’t dance…I’m a terrible dancer…there is a lot of sparkle is this little body but ZERO rhythm!)
The final piece of our calendar is how many days we have been in school.
We review the number and then we talk about what comes next. Eventually we will talk about tens and ones. After we talk about the number that comes next, we write the number and count to the number.
This is our 10-15 minute calendar time and then we move into our balanced math model.
If you’re interested in any of these calendar components, check out my mustache calendar creation!
What would you like to see me write about in my next post about our routines?
Now i’m off to transcribe 2 student interviews for my grad school class…yippee! How jealous are you?!
The kindergarten smorgasboard is a busy place….
I would love it if you could donate to my classroom! I am hoping to raise $400 to buy iPods and cases for our QR code centers! Thank you!
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