I'm super excited to be teaming up with the ultra-talented bright ideas group again this month to bring you another round of inspiring ideas to take back to your classroom! I hope you're finding lots of things you can use as you make your way through all of the awesome posts!

Today, I want to share a little about how I use calendar time in my classroom.

Calendar is one of my favorite times of the day and with the recent shift to common core, I became very disheartened when I heard from many teachers saying they weren't doing calendar anymore because it's not "common core." While there may not be a specific standard in the common core that states to do calendar, you can meet SOOOOOOO many standards by having a well thought out calendar time, and I am a huge advocate of keeping a calendar time in the the lower grades. {It's also a social studies standard in many states, including Florida, where I teach}. Here's an wide view of what my calendar looks like {it's in the front of my room in front of my group rug}.

After morning work, where my kids do a quick review activity page and I check folders, do attendance, etc., we come to the rug and start our day with calendar. I know this isn't possible for everyone, but after 10 years, I HAVE to start my day this way! The first thing we talk about is the date. We turn over the card with the big number for the date at the bottom, then we decide what pattern piece we need for the day. Yes, I know patterns aren't common core, but it doesn't hurt to be able to repeat a pattern ;).  At this point, we also use the calendar to answer questions such as, "What day of the week was April 3?," or "How many Fridays have we had in April?" {As a side note, on the first day of each month, we write any important dates on the calendar so I don't have to be asked a million times when the field trip is!}.

Next, we discuss what day of the week it is, what day it was yesterday, and what tomorrow will be. This is a great opportunity to teach those positional words {before, after}!

Then, we use money to make the number of the date {this is not a kinder CC standard, but we just do it for exposure and it's great for working on counting on} and then we use base ten blocks to determine how many days we've been in school. This has helped my kids so much this year go beyond the kindergarten base ten standard of just using base ten for teen numbers.

Probably my most favorite aspect of our calendar is our ten frames. Each day, we add a dot to make the amount on the ten frame match our number for the date. I start by asking how many we have, then continue by asking if we put one more, how many do we have. We also determine how many more we need to make 10, 20, or 30 and once the date gets past ten, we talk about how we have a group of ten and so many more. It is an awesome number sense activity each day!

The last two parts of our calendar are tally marks {just to work on another way to make a number} and our weather graph. The graph is great for a quick review of more/less/equal.

We finish up by singing the days of the week and months of the year, which is also not necessarily a CC standard, but it's definitely a life skill!
I hope that if you're not currently implementing a calendar time, you'll reconsider next year. In just a few minutes, you can get in some great math vocabulary, number sense activities, and hit some social studies standards!
If you would like to see more ideas from my classroom, be sure to follow me on Instagram {I post there a lot!} and Facebook!
Now, be sure to check out the amazing bright ideas below. I'm sure you'll find lots to help finish your year on a high note!

An InLinkz Link-up

Read more »

Vickie

I can't even tell y'all how excited I am to be part of this amazing bright ideas blog hop again! I got so many great ideas last hop, and I can't wait to read all the ideas from this hop!

Today I want to share some ways I get my kids up, moving, and most importantly, engaged! Student engagement is huge at my school, as I'm sure it is at yours, and in kindergarten a great way to achieve 100% student engagement is with academic games!
Everyday, we start our math time with a quick game. Usually, we do one, but if time allows {and I give in to my kids begging ;)}, we do a few. One that I love is giving everyone a number and seeing how quickly they can line up in number order WITHOUT talking. Now notice, these numbers are super simple - cut cardstock in half and write the numbers! Sometimes we line up 1-18, and other times I split them into groups so that they have to figure out who has the first number and count on.

 {I love how they "guide" each other to the right place!}

Another one of our favorite games is called Cluck, Cluck Chicken. My friend Deeanna introduced me to it and the kids love it! The only real way to show you how we play is to show you a video, but you have to promise not to make fun of my horrible accent {I also apologize for the blurriness - I had the wrong lens and didn't realize it}!! The kids get in a circle, I call out a number, and they cluck until they make a group with that many kids. The whole scene is comical, but I never intervene! I make them do the problem solving! This would be a great way to introduce division to older kids.

Last, I started giving my kids plus and equal signs last week with their numbers. They work in groups to figure out how to make themselves into a correct equation. Most of the time, when we do this, I have a couple of kids left over and they act as "fact checkers." This is a challenge for my kids at first, but it gets easier and easier and really helps with fluency. Again, a no cost game! How much easier can it get? 

Although these games are math centered, you can easily adapt them to ELA. I break kids up in teams of 3 or 4, give them some letters and they have to make a word. Again, use letter flashcards or write letters on cardstock. As busy as things are this year, I'm all about easy {and cheap!}. You could also write words on cards and have them get in alphabetical order. Use your imagination.

I'd love to know some of your favorite, easy games to play with your class!

Now, keep hopping to find your next bright idea! Kerri over at Teacher Bits and Bobs has some great ideas about organizing student work folders.

If you'd rather browse the hop by topic, you can do that too!

An InLinkz Link-up

An InLinkz Link-up

Read more »

Vickie