Embedded Files
Teaching Beyond the Calendar
Teaching Beyond the Calendar
Students look at the calendar every day. The passage of time is a critical skill that every young person should have. So why not take advantage of these constant glances at the calendar. Here are some things that I have used my classroom calendar for a deeper, making connections to other subjects:
Months of the Year
What month are we in?
What month is it next?
How many months till the end of the year?
How many months have passed since the beginning of the year?
Put the months in order
What month is missing?
Science
Teach the lunar cycle
Teach Sunrise and Sunset Time to demonstrate that the rotation of Earth causes changes over time
Explore why we have a leap year
The patterns in our night sky
Study solstices and equinoxes
Time management plan for science fair
Track weather
Seasons
Math
Number Sequence with visual tracking to the next line.
Find the missing number
What will be the date in __ days?
Add and subtract dates with real life questions
Learn ordinal numbers
How many days have we been in school? Use place values to group the number into hundreds, tens, and units
Simple AB or ABC patterns
Even and Odd numbers
Introduction to multiples and multiplication
Teach about the concept of 1/2 way through the year 1/2 birthdays
Usage
Proper Nouns
Speaking in complete sentences
Interactive Calendar - Cut and Paste
Interactive Calendar - Cut and Paste
When students can cut and paste, you are teaching your students fine motor skills. Developed fine motor skills lead to improved handwriting.
You can have your students track information over time. You can even have them track standards progress. Students can put on their personal calendar or reflection journal their level of understanding for a key standards. It is very eye opening for students to see that they gain confidence and improve abilities with practice.
Tracking data over time makes students able to see patterns. The seasons, the lunar cycle, and day light length patterns tying to seasons become naturally apparent when students are allowed to observe and create hypothesis about what they are seeing.
Paperless Option using Easel
Paperless Option using Easel
This is a great tool to use at the beginning of the year to introduce the Gregorian calendar. The calendar is a great place to identify patterns and multiples with the Days of the Week labels already set-up. The students will drag and drop
Name of the month,
Number sequence
Rings to demonstrate their understanding of the assigned pattern or multiples,
Add birthdays, school holidays, field trips, and assemblies
Add the Lunar Cycle to develop an understanding of the patterns of Earth's moon
Knuckle Trick
Knuckle Trick
Your students probably know how many days are in a year (365), and how many months are in a year (12). Now it’s time to teach them how to remember how many days are in a month, but that depends on which month you’re talking about of course.
Use your knuckles to figure out how many days are in a month. This knuckle trick is so easy, even young children can learn it. It’s so much simpler than remembering that rhyme! All you do is tap each of your knuckles, and the wells in between, while reciting the months of the year. You’ll start with the first knuckle and work your way to the knuckle on your baby finger.
Your knuckles, which are higher up than the valleys, represent the months with 31 days. Get it? Higher up = higher number of days. The wells in between your knuckles represent the months with 30 days (lower down = lower number of days). All you really have to remember is that February only has 28 days (or 29 in a leap year).
Page updated
Google Sites
Report abuse