Do you have all of the days put up in advance, or during calendar time do you put up the number for the day?
I put up they day each day and once the kids know the routine it becomes their responsibility during circle/carpet time - as the special helper or whatever. They lead the calendar and put up the date - I also have dates with different patterns (each month is a different pattern) so we use that for patterning and talk about what that day would look like etc.
I put the number up each day. I have a regular calendar posted in the room too to see what it looks like and I encourage parents to post them at home at their child's eye level.
if you're using the theory behind Math Investigations, all days are on the calendar all month... their thought is that adults view "whole" calendars at a time and learn to recognize dates that way, so kids should also the the "whole" calendar
I have all the days on the calendar. I would lose them if I didn't! We count how many days we have had in the month so far and how many days are in the month. sometimes we count the days left until a special event. Today we counted as I put the days in the calendar.
I'm just curious as to why you would put up the number for each day. I've always had all the numbers up in advance and never really thought to do it otherwise.
This is a good question. I put up the number every day because I want to focus on the day that we are on. Also I can work with them on knowing what number comes next. I can see the benefits of doing it either way.
I have the kids put the number up daily in the beginning of the year. It's just another way to learn number recognition. All of the upcoming days are in a pocket chart, and they have to find the current day.
Research in our math curriculum says to display the whole calendar...otherwise the students are only seeing a complete calendar 9 times a year. We like to look forward to events on the calendar and count how many until... I also have never thought to put up one at a time. I put up one number at a time for our number line and count of how many days in school.
I put it up one day at a time- that is the way our math program has us do it. The kids tell what day we come next, and we also make a pattern so they have to tell what comes next. Like PP said, I can see the benefits of doing it both ways.
I do it one day at a time. But after reading this I can see advantages of both ways. I'm thinking about alternating ... one month I might put one day and the next I might put all of the days.
For September and October I put up one day at a time, so the kids get an idea of what a calendar is and how it works. We do not really have anything to "countdown" to in those months. Then in November I put up all the numbers and the kids keep track of where we are, upcoming events, today is, tomorrow is, yesterday was, etc.
I"ve also never thought to put the whole month up - I've always used the calendar as a way to practice number recognition, patterning, etc. I usually do give the kids a full calendar each month so they do see that "full calendar" and we talk about what is happening that month. I haven't seen that many K classes here that have the whole month up so its also what I was used to.
Our calendar program (Every Day Counts) puts up one day at a time. Each month has a different color, or shape, or whatever pattern, so predicting is part of the skill taught. We do put up the whole calendar, but the numbers are turned backward and turned face forward each day.
We used to do this program, but our district stopped once they started believing that the kids didn't truly learn anything.
Oh wow! I hadn't thought about it. The last several years I've taugth 3rd grade & I've put all the numbers up. Now that I've thought about it, I do remember putting up the number as we went along. We would talk about what number comes next & what was next in the pattern.
How do you keep track of what day it is if they are all on there at the same time? I personally can't remember what day it is. Lol.
Mine do too but that doesn't mean anything to me. I'm not a date person to begin with. Currently I have a very plain jane ugly calendar that is just a calendar template drawn on poster board and laminated. One teacher gave it to me while I'm waiting for our lamination to come in so I can have my own laminated. I used crayon to write on the numbers and crayons to color in the box for that date. That works perfectly for me but it is really very unsightly and I will be getting a different calendar soon.
