Calendar Time plus a classroom video!
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Let’s talk about Calendar Time!
We know when we start the year, our students come in with a variety of skills and prior experience. Some students start kindergarten with a year of “school” already under their belt. They hit the ground running. While others start the year a bit overwhelmed. I love seeing all of my students progress, but it is especially exciting to see my little newbies take off.
So, for this reason, I like to reinforce skills over and over. Perhaps when you introduced a skill in October, a few of your friends were not ready for it, but by mid-November it is right in their lane.
Keeping calendar journals that spirally review ELA and Math skills are a great way to introduce AND reinforce skills.
I have been asked how we do our calendar and what skills we cover. It is a VERY quick part of our day. It takes a total of 5-6 minutes each morning. This is a recording of my class from last year. It did not occur to me to tape it until we had already started, so you missed about the first minute of the lesson(sorry, in my next life I will be better.)
A little video action!
Here is how it works. My “Leader of the Day” leads the class with the calendar activities. His/Her calendar is displayed under the document camera (iPad) so the whole class can follow along.
DISCLAIMER: I am hyper-aware of my voice and the language I used during this filming. I noticed that I say, “Good job!” WAY! TOO! MUCH!
You will notice also that this is a real interactive time of our day. Although you can’t hear them all, I promise you, they are all active in the process. They are completing their page at the same time.
There are a variety of skills we cover. We start the year with some easier skills but the complexity of the skills increase as they year progresses. Here is an example of a September page.
We sincerely LOVE the “Mystery Number.” My helper secretly selects a number between 1-30 and writes in on a little scrap of paper off screen. Then the students make guesses. The helper responds with, “My number is more than or less than ___” until we narrow it down.
You can find these units HERE.
That is how we do calendar time in Kindergarten!
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Deedee Wills
My teaching career allowed me to experience teaching in different classroom environments and grades. My heart belongs to early childhood education. My job is to make teaching FUN, ENGAGING, and EASIER. Welcome!
Hi, I'm DeedeE.
My teaching career allowed me to experience teaching in different classroom environments and grades. My heart belongs to early childhood education. My job is to make teaching FUN, ENGAGING, and EASIER. Welcome!
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13 Responses
I think this is a great idea. Thanks for showing demonstration.
I think this is a great idea. Thanks for showing demonstration.
I haven't seen these before! Nice work.
Thanks for your hard work, it makes my work easier. I love your stuff..
Love the use of the iPad as document camera.
Wow! This could really spice up my calendar time.
I bought this bundle this year and have been using it since September. I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE it!! I have seen so much improvement in my kids! Thank you for sharing another great resource!
You are a rockstar! Thanks for sharing your amazing talents. ESGI has been a life saver this year.
You are amazing! I love all of your ideas! Thank you! 🙂
Really a nice stuff,the images shown are rare one and not found in other webpages. keep sharing such a relevant content. Greatful to find useful content like Top10trend.in.
I really like the idea of these short calendar time lessons. I've tried interactive notebooks and morning worksheets, but even though I love what I have purchased, they're too time consuming. I need something short and sweet and it looks like I might have found it! Thank you for sharing!
How would you introduce this in September? Is this something that you use in September or only later in the year? I have many students that are not yet able to print in September/ October and I am just wondering what strategies you use to help them complete these sheets. They look like an amazing way to keep students engaged during calendar. Thank you.
Hi there! We started in mid-August, right when school began. For the first 2 weeks, we just used the teacher copy under the document camera. THEN starting on September 1st, each student had their own. I taught at a title school that had many students who came in without skills. It is amazing how quickly they learn if they are exposed. The start of the year, the calendar activities are geared to early learning!