[teach12]

What do you guys do for calendar time? I feel like I need to do more. I would appreciate it if some of you could tell me your routine. Thanks!

[BronxTeacher]

The students come in to their seats, take down their chairs, and take out their homework. They raise their hands when their folder is open for me to see for notes, and all their workbook pages are open for me to check. After I check their homework (one at a time), they go to the closet and put their belongings away. Then they sit on the rug and wait for me to do this with each student (takes 5 minutes after the routine is in their heads). One student has a day to fill in the mornin message. They add in the boys and girls in Dear boys and girls. They also fill in what day of the week it is, what the weather is like outside, the temperature (I take the thermometer out before they come in), what special we have that day, and the salutation. The student then reads the message to everyone. We then talk about the date, do the pattern on the calendar, and then days in school. We count the sticks, talk about place value and then move to the All About Today chart from Lakeshore Learning Company. We move a pin on the large thermometer to see what today's temperature is. Then we begin the read aloud.

[custer78]

Here is how I have it in my lesson plans for when I am gone...if you have any questions I'd be happy to answer them for you.

Please start off calendar by reviewing what month it is. Then go around to each child and ask what the next month is (i.e. this month is February…then what? March…then what? Etc.). Then review # of months in a year, # of days in a year, # of days in a week. What is the 5th month, 8th month, etc? Pick a stick out of the cup and have that student identify the pattern (our pattern is ABBC) for the month and what we needed for Saturday, Sunday and today. Then that child will choose 1 student to do the red cards that tell yesterday, today and tomorrow. Then choose another child to point as we read those cards. All calendar supplies will be in the clear box on the carpet or on the table. Then do the Velcro Yesterday was…Today is…Tomorrow will be… Then do the 6th day of the week and the favorite day. Then choose 1 person to add a straw and count. Then do the Primary # Checklist using the number of straws and then do the blue ‘Today Is’ poster. When finished with that do the yellow tally mark chart with the number 4 (the day of the month). If there is time you can do Incredible Equations for the number 4 (again the day of the month).

Hope that helps!

[dlynneteacher]

but I do have a few things I do daily (I only spend about 15 minutes doing calendar, I did 30 minutes before December and was able to get all done):
DAILY:
day of the week, spell it, yesterday, tomorrow
date with tens & ones
one tally mark for each day (I color code this into 10's)
one straw for each day (on a hundreds, tens, ones chart)
add a penny for each day exchange it for a nickel, dime, quarter as needed)
representation for the date (today is 3st, so representations for 31, today I got 31 smiley faces, 31+0, 31-0, 3 tens 1 one, 100-69, 30+1, 31 tallies) I allow days of the week for numbers under 7 and months of the year for numbers under 12, and a letter of the alphabet for numbers under 26, we rotate this each month
If TIME allows (I can usually get 1-2 a day)
geometric shapes, identify, number of vertices, sides
algabraic equation for attendance (today we had one student absent, so 20=19 + A)
time (hour & half hour)
secret number on the number line (use math vocab)
weather calendar
count by 5s, 10s, 2s
use hundred's board to add & subtract 2 digit numbers
multiplication (I call it groups-there are 5 students wearing white uniform shirts and 5 students wearing blue uniform shirts how many are wearing these 2 color shirts, we write out the equation 2X5=10 2 groups of 5 is the same as 10)
calendar pattern (this is definitely done at the beginning of each month, we began in August with AB April will be AABBC)
I use calendar to begin teaching concepts needed about week or two early and a LOT of review.
Hope this helps!!!!

[GoTeachers]

I have ONE Handy Helper for the day for ALL jobs ~ including calendar

Here are the things that I/we do (may not necessarily be in order):

Put up the date (Handy calls someone to tell date and what pattern it will be)

Do what day it is (Today, Yesterday, Tomorrow)

I have a running pattern with the number of days we've been in school. Basically, they are the shapes that our first graders are required to know: trapezoid, hexagon, parallelogram, circle, triangle, square, rectangle. I cut them out and laminated them on different colored construction paper. The Handy uses a wet-erase marker to write the number day we are on - today was 134.

I have a little piggy bank. Well, it's also drawn and laminated. I have pennies, nickels, dimes, and quarters (and a dollar-fake). Each day we add a penny and change it as we can (5 pennies = 1 nickel).

We also add a tally mark to a chart for each day

We do straws in the pockets for ones, ten, hundred place.

We keep a weather graph

We have a BRAIN POP. This is a balloon that I put a cool fact of some kind in (written) and then blow it up. We count down and the Handy pops it and we read the cool fact. The kids LOVE this part of calendar.

We also do a Mystery number. I have a big 100 chart up. The Handy writes a number down (don't let anyone else see it). They call someone to guess a number. I have to little circles to cover as we go. If the number is 43 and someone says... 30 Handy and I say... no, its greater than 30. We cover 30. Then if someone guess 65. We say, no its less than 65, we cover it. Now we've narrowed it down to between 30 and 65. Handy keeps calling kiddos to guess until they get it.

At the end we stand up and the Handy leads us in a cadence. We march and repeat after the Handy. After the 100th day here's the cadence we do:

First Grade, first grade what you say
Kids repeat
We've been in school over a hundred days
Kids repeat
Every day we learn something new
Kids repeat
We can even count by twos
Kids Repeat
Sound off
Kids say 2, 4 (hold up that many fingers)
Sound off
Kids say 6, 8 (hold up)
Bring it down now
Kids say 2, 4, 6, 8 (hold up)

Hope this gives you some fresh ideas.

[Starrla]

Wow! I do most everything except your brainpop and secret number. I did a secret number a little different. Where do you get your brainpop fact from? Is it usually based on something you are doing that week?

[teach12]

Thank you for all of the great ideas!

[zookeeper44]

Like the brain pop thing - do the same type of things - mystery number we have to guess higher or lower - also count by 2, 5, 10, do our weather graph here also and compare to other months that are completed and make predictions on the next months

[GoTeachers]

I usually do it based on something that we are learning in either social studies or science. It might be cool/strange facts about a country that we are learning or about one of my themes or a specific animal. For example, the week of St. Patricks's day I had facts about Ireland. Sometimes I go to google and type in cool kids facts or something like that and lots of good sites come up with facts. Or, I'll google the specific thing I'm looking for (like owl facts) and see what comes up.

I keep them from year to year. I just put them in a baggie as I read them and I'll keep them for the next year. I try to keep them in order.