[heddyb65]

I am interested in finding some new activities for calendar time. I start every day with the calendar but some of the activities have gotten so routine with the kids that they aren't actually transferring that knowledge into other areas. I currently do the calendar, bundling straws (hundreds/tens/ones), counting money, tally marks (fives), and weather. Does anyone have any suggestions or book that you could recommend for ideas?

Thanks for any advice!

[janeingeorgia]

I have a set of laminated bears and a set of tee shirts- each a different color. there is a Velcro dot on the bear and one on each shirt.The helper starts with my direction," put the green shirt on the fourth bear, then the helper chooses the next student. and so forth. I taught kindergarten last year, but will teach ordinal in first grade too.You could probably make a set of shirts with different letters on each one, then the students would put them in ABC order......You could use the bears for all sorts of skills at carpet time.

[heddyb65]

Wow! Thanks for that idea Jane. I've already thought of ways to expand on the t-shirts and it'll become a part of our carpet time when school starts in August.

Heather

[jerzgirl]

This isn't math related, but the kids love it. On the back of my calendar numbers I put a riddle. The Director of the Day reads the riddle and two children get a chance to answer. Then they pick a child to tell the riddle to the janitor at lunch. This has helped develop vocabulary and is wordplay. Quite a hit for us!
In Sept. my "riddles" are more on the trivia side-What town do we live in? How many eggs are in a dozen? Who is our nurse? etc. The first month, I had found that they weren't quite ready for riddles
jerz

[teacherkathy]

I added a Question of the Day this year and the kids loved it. I made a list of questions that could be answered yes/no and put each one on an index card. There are lots of "do you like cooked spinach" kinds of things but also questions that help us get to know each other ("have you ever lived in a different state" and some that help me understand what kind of home life these kids deal with "does anybody usually read you a bedtime story". I have each kid's name (and mine, too) on a label that goes into a plastic index tab (the kind you use for file folders) with the ends cut off, taped closed, and with a velcro hook circle on the back. Then I put the velcro smooth pieces in a row down a large piece of laminated paper with yes and no on each side. The calendar helper reads the question, asks each person in turn, and puts their name on the chart (starting at the bottom, which reinforces how you fill out a graph).

[dallen1]

Magic Equation-Students come up with math problems that equal the number of days been in school. You will be amazed-you will even be able to introduce simple multiplication (some need this challenge) with this.

Estimation jar-each night a different student (usually the calendar helper) takes home the estimation jar-fills the jar-Next day make estimates-then count (2,3,4, 10)

Also each day I focus a problem of day focus

Monday-Money or measurement
Tuesday-time (calendar and clock work)
Wednesday-wonderful fact fun (flashcards-around the world for add/sub)
Thursday-thinking thursday (problem solving)
Friday- fractions/geometry