What Does Calendar Time Look Like in Your Room?
Through my years of teaching, my Calendar time has evolved a little and I wanted to share some of the things I do during this time in our classroom.
I have a “Calendar Person” for each week.
He/she begins by changing the dates for us. We read the date together and discuss any important information including birthdays, upcoming holidays, how many days left in the month, etc.
Next, the calendar person adds a coin to our money count to show the number of days we have been in school.
We count our money together as a class. Then he/she adds a straw to review place value.
After this, the calendar person points to the number grid while we count by 10’s to 200, 5’s to 120, and 2’s to 30, for now. We will eventually go to 100. Later in the year, we will begin counting by 10’s starting with numbers other than 0.
Next, the calendar person writes the number of our date on our Number Sentences whiteboard. {Today is the 28th so 28 was on our board.} He/she calls on 5-6 students in the class to write number sentences to get to that number.
Then it is chapter book time. I LOVE Ready Freddy books.
I rotate between these and Junie B., but I have to say, Ready Freddy is my favorite 😉
After our time on the carpet at the calendar, the students return to their seats and I pass out their Calendar and Math Vocabulary binders.
For the first couple of weeks, we really walk through this together. I do it with them using my document camera and projector.
We have only been doing this for a week and many of them are starting to become independent already.
We discuss our math vocabulary word. This week it was “add.” Next week, we will be discussing the word “digit.”
You can find the pages above by clicking on the picture below.
Next, the students pull out their math notebooks from the front of their binders.
I pass out their word problem for the day to glue into their notebooks.
I use these from Anna Brantley.
We read it together and discuss how we should solve the problem.
The students must draw a picture, write a number sentence, and then use “I know____ because_____” to explain their thinking.
Again, this is something that is modeled, modeled, modeled, but they do eventually become very independent.
So, what does your calendar time look like? I’m always looking for new and exciting things to add.

I use anna's journals too! 🙂
Your calendar math looks great!
Love this post! For a few years, my class did an online calendar math. It was ok but I realized I liked the old fashion way better. This year, my calendar math looks like yours. I am so much happier! I will check out your math voc unit on TPT.
Mrs.Christy’s Leaping Loopers
Is your math block separate from your calendar time? I tried to implement something similar the year before last but I had time issues with getting it all in with our math series. I want to add a problem of the day and binder but I don't know where to borrow the time from. My math block is only 35 minutes : (
I had the same question as Monica. I tried doing a calendar binder and word problem of the day but would often run out of time when trying to get to the mini (focus) lesson and daily rotations during math. My math block is longer this year so maybe it will work. I am going to check out your unit on TPT.
This was SO helpful for homeschooling my first grader. I really want some new challenging content in our calendar time. We needed something more than letters, colors, and weather. I'm going to alternate the math notebook with literacy work because we need practice with both but such a great idea! We can put our sight word on the board then go do our sight word notebook right after. Such a smooth transition. Thanks for sharing!