Calendar time or circle time in the Early Years classroom is the most important time of the day. It is when a teacher can incorporate math and language art skill areas into the first thirty minutes of the each day. Calendar time can teach many skill areas and creates a well-established routine to begin the day.
A calendar time usually begins and ends the same way thus establishing a routine the students quickly pick up. It is important to keep the same songs and routines so that the students will feel a sense of confidence when she or he can recite a song or a poem. Of course, this is through memorization but it gives a child the confidence to see himself or herself as a learner.
Where to Begin With Calendar Time
It is important to think activities through carefully and all activities of the calendar visually displayed for the students. Many stores carry large blank calendars, thematic numbers, charts and ready made packaged calendars to help those teachers just starting out.
Assign Seating: Having masking tape in to lines for students to sit on or in a circle to sit around is a good first step. Students like to sit with classmates that after a few minutes may not make the right choices when sitting together.
Sunshine Student and On-Deck Helper: The student in charge of the calendar should have a special title to go along with this activity. A special name can be Sunshine Student or Celebrity of the Day. The Sunshine student has special duties for the day for example the student will take the attendance slep to the office, hand out any items from the teacher, be first to stand in line and have a special seat on the carpet beside the teacher. Of course, the special student needs a helper and that student is on deck waiting to be the next Sunshine or Celebrity.
Supplies: A teacher should have a large blank calendar, package of theme calendar numbers for each month, Months of the year signs, names of students written on name plates and school day cycle numbers up to six. Other signs for the calendar are: Gym, Music, Library, Field Trip, No School and Early Dismissal.
Other Activities During Calendar Time
If there were other skill areas that a teacher would like to review it would be done at this time. Reviewing sight words or skip counting by 2, 5 or 10 can be inserted into the morning routine. Using this time to incorporate skills that need repletion is a very good use of calendar time. Here are a few other activities to do as a class during calendar time.
- Rote counting up to 50 then up to 100 once mastered as a class
- Sing the Alphabet Song
- Recite the sounds of letters using an alphabet book. Singing the letter and its sound to the tune of Jeopardy "A for apple ah, ah A, B for Butterfly bah, bah B and so on.
- Recite the Days of the week: Singing songs during circle time is a way for students to remember the order of days. Many students think the beginning of the week is Monday and not Sunday.
- Recite poems related to the theme of the month.
- Keep track of how many days of school there has been since the start of the school year and celebrate the 100th day of school.
Calendar time is a very important start of the school day. Keeping activities routine will build confidence in young learners when learning letter sounds, days of the week and rote counting to 100. Using calendar time to reinforce skills is an effective way of teaching concepts needing repetition in the classroom.
Found this article helpful? Then read Classroom Calendar Math Activities by Jackie Parsons.
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