Tuesday, June 18, 2013

Schedule Spotlight Series- Calendar

I'm linking up with Kelli again from Castles and Crayons for the 2nd week of her Schedule Spotlight Series Linky Party.



My morning usually looks like this:
8:30-8:40- Morning Work
8:40-8:45- Calendar

Yes, we spend all of 5 minutes on our calendar. My kiddos are pretty self sufficient with the calendar after only the first few weeks of school. So, my calendar helper gets the calendar ready as part of their morning work. That way when it is time to do calendar, all they need to do is share. I don't do much except prompt what they should be sharing with the class. Here is a quick run-down of how we utilize those precious 5 minutes.

We actually share the calendar from our seats. I don't have any bulletin board space near my carpet area, so after announcements are over, we turn towards the calendar so my helper can share. Here is a picture of my calendar from last year. It will be set up the same way again this year.


He/she will have already added the date to the calendar (we add as we go). They will say "Today is Tuesday, June 18, 2013". Then they share any important dates coming up (holidays, school events, birthdays, etc.) When we get close to an event they are really excited for such as a field trip or a school break, we will figure out how many days we have until that event happens.

Then we move on to the weather. The helper should have already added to our monthly weather graph. They will state what they chose as our weather for today and I will call on 2 students from their seats to compare our weather using a comparison sentence with more than, less than or equal to. ("There are more sunny days than rainy days")

We also keep track of how many days we have been in school using straws in a pocket chart. They will share what our new count is and in what place value they had to put their straw. We quickly talk about how many ones, tens and hundreds make up the number. ("We have been in school for 46 days. How many tens and ones makes 46?") We also count our days of school using coins. I have a 'piggy bank' on the board. They use a dry erase marker to add a coin for each day. My rule is that they need to show that number using the fewest number of coins; so we are constantly making trades for bigger coins.

After that, I have a key ring full of Calendar Task Cards. (Thanks to Christina Bainbridge! Use the following link to check them out yourself: www.bainbridgeclass.com/files.htm) and I ask my helper one question a day.

And that's it! Since the calendar helper gets the work done before we share calendar, it allows us to move through sharing the calender pretty quickly!

Head over to Kelli's blog and join in on the fun!

2 comments:

Teaching Little Miracles said...

Hi there. Your calendar sounds like mine last year by the end of the year... I'm going to have to make myself get into it more this year with Saxon Math.

Found you through the linky - love finding team bloggers like us! :-)

Crystal
Teaching Little Miracles

Sharon Dudley said...

Jayme and Yal, wow! You really pack a lot into calendar time! I feel like a slacker next to you guys.

Your latest follower,

Sharon Dudley, NBCT
Teaching with Sight

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