Calendar Time and Sunshine Committee

Routines are an important part of a teacher's job. One of the routine that you are probably working on right now is calendar time.

Calendar time is a valuable part of your day because it teaches and continually reviews important skills. Students who may not be successful today, might master the same skill in a couple of weeks because of the repetitive practice.

Through the years, I have played around with my schedule to figure out when was the best time to incorporate calendar time into my day. In the beginning of my career, I did calendar time right after I took attendance and lunch count. It never fails, it seems like every class has a handful of students who are chronically tardy. These students are often the ones who NEED to review the skills the most. Calendar time is a great way to get your students up and moving. Why would I want to do it a few minutes after my students arrived? Click HERE to read about what I did before calendar time. This post also has freebies for you.

I organize my students in teams, usually at tables. When it is time to begin calendar time on the carpet. I dismiss one table at a time to go to their assigned row on the carpet. I rotate which row they sit on each day. Tape can damage carpets like these:


Click on picture.

I tape different shapes on each row to show students where their assigned row is.

Use shapes students may not be as familiar with such as: pentagon, rhombus, or hexagon. Dismiss the teams and quiz them at the same time. Example: The team whose shape has six sides is dismissed. Team, what is the name of this shape?
Add a little seasonal fun by taping seasonal shapes for each row. You can also incorporate language arts skills with this activity. Example: Fall shapes - bat, pumpkin, and apple. Team one may sit on the row that has one syllable.

You can use die cuts or the small calendar numbers work great, too!

Crossing midline is an important skill that can be overlooked. One way I incorporate it into my schedule is with skip counting aerobics.

This is the perfect activity to incorporate into your calendar time. To skip count by 2's, students will hold up two fingers. The student will cross midline, while holding up two fingers, and count by 2's. Your class will look like they are doing aerobics. They hold up the number of fingers that they are skip counting.

We do rocket counting when we practice counting backwards. We hold our hands above our heads and slowly slide them down while bending our body down, too. When we get to zero, we jump in the air and say blast off!

In the beginning, I lead the calendar time so my students can learn the procedures. Once we had a good grasp of the routines, I will have a student leader help me with it. The easiest way I found to do this is do it in number order. If a student is absent on their assigned day, I write his/her name down on an absent leader list. Anytime a leader of the day is not at school, I go the absent leader list and get the first name on the list. If that person isn't at school, I go to the second name.




Click HERE for the FREE printable.


3 comments

Karen F. said...

The Rafflecopter didnt have a space for me to enter my school name. Just wanted you to know :-)
Karen

kathy said...

Rafflecopter does not have a space for school name! Mine is Brook Glenn Elementary School in Taylors SC.

Unknown said...

My school name is Fallston Elementary in Fallston,North Carolina.