Schedule Spotlight Series #2 - Calendar

Hey y’all! It is has been a rainy day here in the South…perfect for a blog post! :)

This is the second post in the 10 week Schedule Spotlight series!

For those of you just joining in the fun, we are going through our day, minute by minute and hour by hour! Almost as a good as observing…but saving money on gas and sub pay! :)

7:45 - 8:15 ~ Morning Work {Post #1 - June 10}
8:15 - 8:30 ~ Calendar {Post #2 - June 17}

At 8:15, I walk around and check everyone’s math journals. I try to do this 2 times a week…just enough so that they know I am going to check and they don’t just scribble all over! I glance over the last day when I check the current day, so everything gets checked! Sometimes it’s a sticker, sometimes it’s a smiley face…and sometimes it is good ole verbal praise! :)

I call my friends down to the carpet by table. When they come down to the carpet, they sit in our sharing circle. Once everyone is settled, I start every single day with “Good morning, Bollman’s Bunch!” and they respond, “Good morning, Mrs. Bollman!” I then say, “Today is Monday, June 17, 2013. Our special today is Art and our Jungle Guide is Brady.” I went to a workshop a while back that said verbal cues are an important part of a structured schedule. So they have several cues that we are about to start calendar time: we are sitting in a sharing circle, and I just said my Good morning spiel! Spiel – reminds me of my waiting table days in college! 

With the addition of the Promethean Board in my classroom in 2008, I have scaled back on my 'wall' calendar and spend more time on our interactive calendar! 

Here is a pic of our wall calendar. I have since spiffed it up with zebra number cards and day of the week cards from Kacey at Doodle Bugs Teaching! We flip over the number for the day, do the Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow cards, add a straw and count them, write how many days we've been in school and write the date. The Jungle Guide is the calendar helper. This takes about 5 minutes...even less as the days go on! I have thought several times about taking it down, but I like for the calendar to be there throughout the day for them to reference! 

Next, we move on to the Promethean board calendar! The Jungle Guide leads the board calendar, as well. They call on other students to drag and click...it takes about a month of training and then they can do the board calendar SOLO! It is so fab -- it gives me a couple minutes to think through our math mini lesson and pull any manipulatives I may need!

This is the page sequence of our calendar flipchart:

*Starfall calendar

*Math Movement Songs 

{my fave thanks to Cara Carroll is Have Fun Teaching's videos on School Tube} - My kiddos {and ok, ok, mine too!} is Counting by 5's! 

*One More, One Less, Ten More, Ten Less 

{with the number of days we have been in school}

*Mystery Number 

{drag a shape to cover numbers on the hundred chart}

*Greater Than, Less Than 

{with the random number generator and alligator mouths}

*Time Poem

*Coin Poem

I wish I could post the calendar flipchart I created, but it tons of songs, clipart, and images I have borrowed from other flipcharts - it would be a copyright and credit nightmare! :( 

So...I searched for some on TpT for you! :)

Ms. Arnold {my Bham neighbor} has ones she adds each month {Check out May}

Michelle Hanson has one that is pretty comprehensive and chock full of fun {Flipchart}

Dizzy for Kindergarten has one for every month 

{Check out February}

My plan to implement a Calendar Notebook this year to give some accountability during calendar! Because calendar is repetitive, some of my busy kiddos start to wander a bit...this will hold them accountable! Check out Cara's Calendar Companion!

We finish up with Calendar by 8:30 and then its time to begin our Math mini lesson! 

Link up below to tell us all about Calendar time in your classroom!

Join us next Monday, June 24 to learn more about our Math block!

Have a fun in the sun week! :)