You know I’m a wonderin’ type of gal, right? Well, here’s my wonder for today. How in the world do you decide on a classroom calendar? Since I no longer use a classroom calendar, I only recently realized how many calendar choices today’s teachers have!
The selection of calendar grids is pretty remarkable! In addition to the standard year-round calendar grid (chart), I found disposable calendar grids for monthly use, magnetic calendar grids, and even pocket chart calendar grids. Who knew? There are oodles of monthly banner choices and just as many choices for calendar pieces. It all makes my head spin in a fun sort of way. I think the complete calendar sets are pretty awesome since they include the whole shebang—a year-round calendar grid and a year’s worth of monthly banners and daily calendar pieces. We actually sell a year-round classroom calendar set that’s quite spiffy and a heck of a deal. (Hey, was that a plug? It sure sounded like one!) 🙂
Really, I’m not trying to influence your calendar purchases—scouts’ honor. I’m simply curious about how you choose a classroom calendar!
All ears!
Diane
and now -in addition to the paper ones for your board- we have the interactive ones that we can use on the computer Activ Boards and Smart Boards—–that can just be downloaded …..
I use a weekly calendar with my pre-k students. I made it myself–didn’t buy it. I use an apple marker that I move & place above each day of the week, Monday – Friday. The students learn that they are in school for 5 days, then off on Saturday & Sunday. Besides the marker that I move daily, I have markers for specific school activities. Example: A book above Wednesday, so that students know that we go to the library on that day.
In my Kindergarten class I use the pocket chart with the different date pieces so I can do patterns on the calendar. I do have a smart board but I prefer the the hands on calendar that I can tailor to my needs (even though I’m a technology junky).
I do a monthly calendar. The calendar has cricut made pattern numbered cards. We do days of the week, pattern, numbers, tracking, etc!
I use monthly calendar to teach a variety of skills patterning, finding specific dates such as the first day of the week, student birthday etc. Since there are calendar questions on all standardized tests the calendar is focus of my morning meeting.
I boughta calender that had the headers and numbers to match. It did not all come as a set. I had to buy the calender, then the pack of headers, and the I bought the numbers to match but I was able to buy them a month at a time until I had all 12 months. I could have bought a calender set. but this was the one I liked and wanted and of course it didnt come in a set.
I have always used a calendar set- I have about three different ones that I interchange during the year. I love being able to use pieces that match the month and with so many different ones out there I can buy multiple sets and make patterns. This year I have to move classes while construction is going on, so I have to use a pocket chart style. I hope it all works out.
I use a monthly calendar that I made myself with my students. I use it to teach left-right directionality, one-to-one correspondence, counting, patterning, and the days of the week and months of the year. Calendar helper is one of our jobs which the children rotate through weekly. That child uses a pointer to guide the class in counting to the date and uses the pointer to find the day and month. Each month I change the pattern on the calendar to go with seasonal themes as well as to increase the difficulty level of the patterns – ABAB at the beginning of the year and more complicated patterns as we move on. By the end of the year we usually have two different patterns going on – for example, an ABAB pattern such as dog rabbit dog rabbit that is also an AABC pattern such as gray gray white brown.
We have a separate weekly calendar that came with our math curriculum which we use to chart each week’s weather – each Friday we look back at the week (how many windy/sunny/cloudy/rainy/snowy/partly cloudy/foggy days did we have? What did we have the most of this week?).
I like my pocket chart calendar. It is hands on and different students get to work on it daily. They pick a pointer and we do days of the week, months of the year, today is/yesterday was/tomorrow will be, how many days in school, counting, patterning, how many days until…(fill in with event), seasons, weather, and so much more!
I,also,have a monthly calendar that we use to graph the weather.
I use a dry erase calendar in my PreK class. I made copies of calendar pages without the headers, stapled them together with construction paper cover and each day at circle time we do the calendar together. I ask them to place their finger on the day before (will say the number) and then slide their finger ‘right next door’. Then I will ask what number we will be writing on the calendar today…we will then count from #1 to the current day and see if that is correct….then write the number in the box. When it is time for a new month my students write the current header at the top of their calendars. Also, each day I will ask what is the letter the current month begins with…we then do the sound for that letter. I also do this for the current day we are in. The kiddos love this! It helps boost their self esteem and, of course, encourages number recognition, letter recognition, ect.
In our preschool classroom I use a calendar set purchased from a teacher who retired. Everyday during circle time we say the name of the month and the letter that it begins with. Then the calendar helper comes to the calendar and sings a song with the class. The song is 12 Months In the Year. We sing the name of every month to the tune of 10 little indians. Then at the end we sing “12 months in the year!” They love it. Then the calendar helper starts counting from number 1 and counts to the present day and puts that number up on the calendar. Then the helper says each day of the week while touching the names with their finger and when they get to the current day they run their finger down to that day’s number. Each season and each month has a different header and they notice right away when I change those.
OK, Ladies, and of course the blessed Gents in education today–
I work with my kids at home, often having to find ways to teach the classroom lesson in a different way so that my boys with ADHD can grasp the concept; our district’s massive budget cuts have influenced our staff’s motivation to get help for my sons, so for now, I’m a lone vigilant soldier.So please, tell me, do I teach them that Sunday is the first day of the week as the grid and left-to-right correspondence suggest? My eldest, (6 y/o and a very logical thinker) is really arguing that the calendar people messed up the squares and put Sunday in Monday’s spot. He is certain that the first day of the week is always the first day back to school after 2 days off, that if Sunday is part of our weekend days off, why didn’t they put it at the end of the line??!! How do I unravel this one? I tried “I don’t know, it just is that way, I had to learn it too.” the look on his face said, “that’s a neat Parent’s magazine answer, but I don’t accept that, I guess I have to find someone who DOES know…” Or can someone suggest a good resource? I see many, though which is appropriate, I can’t determine. But I DOknow this–there’s nothing like being speechless w/ any logical answer to offer when put on the stand by a logical six-year-old. Great mathmetician or equally great attorney–the coin still spins in the future.
I have desktop blotter calendar that I mount on the wall to keep important dates, events, and project due dates for my middle school special education students. For MY busy calendar, I use one on my MacBook that I can open up each morning and see what I have lined up for that day, week, and month. It is a valuable tool!
Definitely start with Sunday as being the first day of the week. You can use a song to reinforce it. I used the following to the tune of Frere Jaques where I sing the first part and the students sing the response:
We are singing (we are singing)
The days of the week (the days of the week)
Sunday, Monday, Tuesday (Sunday, Monday, Tuesday)
Wednesday, Thursday, Friday (Wed, Thurs, Friday)
Sa-tur-day (Sa-tur-day)
Also, during calendar time, we incorporated math skills for patterns, place value and money. Each day that we added to the calendar, in Sept for example, was written on a apple or a leaf. The pattern might be apple, leaf, apple, leaf, apple, leaf, for september – something simple. You can make more difficult patterns as the year goes on. Also, for each day that we were at school, we put one straw into a place value pocket chart. When we reached 10 days, we would wrap them with a rubber band and move the bundle to the 10’s place. This continues for the duration of the year. Finally, I used 3 ziploc bags with pennies, nickels and dimes. We added one penny for each day we were at school, and when we reached 5 pennies, we traded them for 1 nickel. When we had two nickels, we traded them for a dime, etc.
This may seem like a lot to do at calendar time, but after the first few weeks, your students will catch on and things will move quickly, and trust me, if you forget to do a part…they’ll remind you!
I use a pocket calendar and interchange calendar numbers and pieces monthly to teach patterns, place value etc. I would love to hear more from Kelly, as to how to do this on the smart board. It would free up some of my dry erase board space and I love teaching on the smart board!
Beth
We love starting the classtime with calendar song and counting up to the day! Our 4 year olds can count forever by the end of the year because of participating in this daily counting activity. This year we would like to incorporate having the children create our daily calendar cards pattern by having them draw one out of three things (maybe a boot, a raindrop or an unbrella) on the back of the numbered date cards for April.
Deb, what grade do you teach? I have kindergarten, and they can handle one pattern, but two patterns!??
I’ll try that this year with my new students. I love your idea of two patterns; it teaches kids to look for more possibilities, encourages deeper thinking.
Cher, I love your Zip-loc bags for coins idea!
I love the mailbox calendar! What I have done however is used a yellow marker to color in the days of the week Monday to Friday, and a light blue marker for Saturday & Sunday; that way my preschoolers readily identify the days we come to school and the days that make up the weekend !
Try Starfall.com it has a fun interactive calendar that works great on the smart board. I used it last year with my ELL 3rd graders. I also used a packaged calender that had different monthly headers,the dates were all the same, but we did have the interchangable cards for the day of the week, weather, and days we had been in school. I also posted my desk blotter calender next to it so I could mark off days off in purple, assemblies in yellow, picture day in red, and other special days off in green.
When teaching Kindergarten, I, too, used the straws for each day we had been to school, but did not group them by tens. Everyday we would count them by ones. Around the 40th day, I would begin to show them how to count by tens using the number chart. I would always do this right after counting the straws by ones hoping that someone would eventually relate the two skills. In a few days I would comment how long it takes us to count the staws by ones then immediately go to the number chart and count by tens. In a few more days, someone would get it. But then they had to figure out how to keep the straws in groups of tens. It usually took another few days to discover the rubberband! What wonderful problem solving was involved.