Calendar Time in Kindergarten

Calendar time in kindergarten can be so tricky! They seem to be engaged at the beginning of the year, then as the year goes on, I found that my students were braiding each other’s hair, picking their noses, not doing what they need to do during calendar time! We had our calendar whole group during our “overlap” time so as you can imagine, keeping 33 kindergartners engaged while on the carpet was a tough task!

 

I also try to be fair and choose my calendar helpers by picking name sticks, but you know how it goes, there’s always those few students that cry if they don’t get picked every time 😉 So I knew I needed to think of something new!

 

 

I was brainstorming fun ways to keep all my students engaged {and keep crying to a minimum ;)} while we learn important calendar concepts, practice our math skills and discuss the weather, when the Interactive Calendar Notebook was born!

 

Each student has their own calendar notebook so that EVERY one can be actively engaged during calendar time. I found these pencil pouches at the 99 cent store and stuck a pencil and a couple of crayons in each so that we have easy access while at the carpet. {Side note: this would work well at centers or during seat work too!}

While we are working on our calendar wall, we complete our calendar notebooks together. We talk about the date, sing our song, and complete the first line in our notebooks. The kiddos trace the month, then write in the date and the year. We also learn about the digital date so we write that as well. {I like printing these pages back-to-back to save on paper, but you can also print one copy, slide it in a sheet protector, and have your students complete this page with a dry erase marker. Then they can just erase it at the end of the day and it will be ready to be used again!}

 

Then it’s time to sing our Months of the Year and Days of the Week songs! We talk about today, yesterday and tomorrow. I am changing up the way we do this because I wanted to pull my hair out every day it was too confusing for my students the way I did it last year. Anyway, my students will find the day on their paper, circle it, and trace the word. As the year progresses, they will be responsible for writing the beginning sound for each day and then finally writing the whole word on their own.

 

After that, we count how many days we’ve been in school. We use this huge number chart that came with our math series. It’s laminated so we can circle the number with a vis-a-vis marker and erase the circles at the end of the year.

 

As I circle the number on the chart, my students will write the number on their papers. Then the calendar helper will add a cube to our pocket chart. We started using base-ten blocks to count the days last year. BEST.IDEA.EVER. It makes so much more sense to my students than using the straws that come with this pocket chart. Once we reach 10 cubes, we switch them out for a tens stick. This also helps teach the concept of place value all year long!

 

We sing our seasons song, talk about the season we are in, circle the name and color the corresponding picture.

Finally, we check the weather. Our weather helper checks the weather while we sing my most favorite weather song ever!  It’s to the tune of “Frere Jacques” {which happens to be the tune to all the songs I sing but whatever ;)}

Then we will record the weather for the day on our weather graph. At the end of the month, we will track the kind of weather we had. {Not to rub it in, but sunny always wins ;)}

 

 

Calendar time is a lot more engaging now with this little change!

 

If you’re interested in trying these out with your class, you can find them in my shop! It includes a Kindergarten and First Grade version in both English and Spanish.