Cross-Content Calendar Time
Nov 29, 2016
Calendar time is critical in any elementary classroom, and Mrs. Maloney’s class is no exception. This is a great opportunity for students to build life skills and reinforce academic skills that they are learning throughout the day.
Mrs. Maloney’s class follows this daily calendar routine:
Each day students are practicing number sense, grouping, place value, graphing, weather, categorizing, sequencing, counting money, the days of the week, months of the year, and public speaking. This daily 20 minute session is invaluable to reinforce skills across so many different content areas.
Mrs. Maloney’s class follows this daily calendar routine:
- Day of the week. A student places the date on the calendar and then determines what day of the week it
is, what day was yesterday and what day tomorrow will be. The class reads aloud what month it is, what month came before and what will come after. - Asking a calendar question. A student draws a question out of a cup that someone in the class has to answer. Here are some examples:
- “What month comes before April?”
- “How many months are there?”
- “Name the third month of the year?”
- “What season comes after summer?”
- “Is Halloween a month, season, or holiday?”
- Writing what day of school it is. Using the hundreds, tens, and ones place, a student writes how many days of school there have been.
- Counting what day of school it is using straws. Straws are placed in the ones pouch until there are ten straws that are then bundled and moved to the tens pouch. Students all count the bundles together and can visually see how ten ones becomes a ten and ten tens become one hundred.
- Counting what day of school it is using money. A coin is added to the “piggy bank” for each day of school. Students group pennies into nickels and nickels into dimes, reinforcing their knowledge of coin values and demonstrating grouping. Once they learn about quarters they will add those into the mix.
- Tally what day of school it is. On the tally chart, a student marks a tally for the day of school. The class then counts by 5 to determine how many days of school there have been.
- Track the weather. The meteorologist looks outside and determines what the weather is like today, then graphs it. The whole class reads the weather together.
- “How much money is in my pocket?” Mrs. Maloney writes a dollar amount on the board and asks a student to read it. She then asks what types of coins she has in her pocket. Students offer up a few different combinations until the right combination is found.
Each day students are practicing number sense, grouping, place value, graphing, weather, categorizing, sequencing, counting money, the days of the week, months of the year, and public speaking. This daily 20 minute session is invaluable to reinforce skills across so many different content areas.