Calendar Math

One of my most favorite parts of the day is Calendar Math. 

I feel like we hit so many math skills in such a short amount of time {usually less than 15 minutes}! The kids are interacting with different activities, we are choral counting and solving, sharing strategies, making up problems to solve using today's number, and just having fun! 

A few years ago I created Calendar Math Journals to help me use our Calendar Math time as a way to collect data on my kiddos. Each student was given his or her very own monthly Journal and every few days we completed a page or two together.

For example, Monday we do Calendar Math on the floor in front of our Calendar. Tuesday, and Wednesday we do Calendar using our Journals. Thursday we are back to the floor. And Friday we do another Journal page. 

On the days when we are working in our Journals, I have our Student of the Week flip the calendar pieces, complete any writing on the hundreds chart, number line, tally marks, straws, money... so we are ready to go the next time we do Calendar on the floor. 

By the end of the year it is my goal that most of my students can complete the activity pages on their own. 

It got to be quite the task running monthly Journals, so I changed it up last year and tried Trimester Calendar Math Journals! This worked out amazingly!!

Here is how I set up my Trimester Journals:

Trimester One: Sept, Oct, Nov activity pages + cover, 100s chart, tally recorder, weather graph {one per month}, "Things I noticed about ___" {one per month}, and the reference page with months of the year, days of the week, skip counting info...

Trimester Two: December, Jan, Feb, March...etc.

Trimester Three: April, May, June...etc.

I double side when copying and staple three times along the top for durability. Very rarely do I have to restaple Journals. My students keep them in their "Unfinished Work" folders for safe keeping in their desks. I collect them only when I want to collect some data--most of the time I collect about 5 at a time to cut down on the pile. I also collect Journals before Fall and Spring Conferences, or before meeting with parents for other meetings throughout the year... just to show them a more clear picture of what we are doing in 2nd grade math and to show them what we did last month... how we have grown, and give them a glimpse into our future! {My kiddos love "looking into the future" especially when something looks hard! They can't wait to get there!}

Each Trimester Journal ends up being about 15 pages {front and back}. And remember... that lasts us 3-4 months! I say that is paper-well-spent!

I love our Calendar Math Journals! This is one of my top selling TPT items and since I am moving up to 3rd grade I will be working on a version that is more specific to 3rd grade skills!

 Here are some pictures of what my Teacher Journal looks like... when we complete our Journal pages together I have my copy under the Document Camera and each of my students has his or her copy out in front of them. I give them time to do the work independently before I call on students to help me fill in the answers in my Journal. For some problems {like the Shopping Problem} we decide on the item, price... or for the clock I tell them the time I want them to show... and then they get to work independently.

How do you do Calendar Math in your classroom? 

CCSS Overload

July is winding down... B2S sales are beginning to pop up... and I am forcing myself to stay away from my classroom for one.more.week. {I don't officially go back to work until Aug. 25th... Kids come Sept. 3rd}

This year I am moving up to 3rd grade. I am so super excited {especially because I get to take a few of my last year 2nd graders with me!}

But I am also anxious--mostly about the jump in skill level between 2nd and 3rd grade. I have loved teaching 2nd grade for the last 6 years! I know the standards, I know strategies, I have a plethora of resources and materials in my cupboards, cabinets and drawers. So now I need to learn my 3rd grade stuff! I. Can. Do. This!

I have spent most of my time just reading the standards then TPT-ing & Pinterest-ing ideas for each standard--this is mostly just helping me get a visual understanding of what 3rd grade looks like. 

I have also spent time looking through my 2nd grade stuff figuring out how I can tweak something I love {like my writing station} to make it work for my 3rd graders. 

When I begin to feel overwhelmed, I watch this video. There is something about it that inspires to keep pushing myself and reminds me why I am a teacher! 

Take a look!

Conferences, Early Release Days, and Halloween...OH MY!

Raise your hand if you are so super happy today is OVER! 

We just finished Fall Parent Teacher Conferences at my school. Yesterday was the last day! I had all but two families show up, my team mate had 100% attendance... so as a team, we did pretty great!

I want to share one of the main documents we used during our conferences.  And let me tell you, this booklet was quite the hit with parents, I think because we involved students and had them write a letter to their parents.

 I loved the assessment page we included!! Everything in one place instead of flipping between multiple papers! Such a time saver! And a great reference for parents to have at home, too!

We folded all of the pages in half and stapled them together along the open side of the paper to create the booklets. 

The focus skills we listed are the skills we have focused on so far this year.  I highlighted the skills individual students were struggling with at this point in the year.

Our district gives us a wonderful Elementary Curriculum and Assessment Guide that highlights the skills we will work on throughout the year. We also had a CCSS informational sheet targeted at 2nd grade to help us better explain what the CCSS are and how we are transitioning to these new standards in our school and across our district.

Overall, the booklet was by far the biggest hit! It was quite the time saver, too  

I could say...

"These are all of the skills we have worked on so far in 2nd grade. Keep in mind we have only had about 35 days together so far!"

Then I could say...

"This highlighted skill is something we need to work on with (your student)" 

Then we would discuss what I see in the classroom, what they see at home, and what we can do to better support their student with that specific skill.

Perfect!  Our 20-short-minutes together were fast and well used!

Now, for your Halloween Treat!!!

I am putting my Halloween Themed-ELA Workshop packet on sale! 50% off!!!!  

Included are five easy to prepare Halloween-Themed ELA Workshop ideas!

These brightly colored activities include tons of fun clipart that will help put everyone in the Halloween-mood :)

Slide 1: Cover
Slides 2 - 8: Teacher Page; ABC and ZYX order activity (with recording pages and activity cards)
Slides 9 - 11: Teacher Page; Halloween-Themed Noun sort
Slides 12 - 14: Teacher Page; Color By Sound coloring pages (devil and frankenstein)
Slides 15 - 21: Teacher Page; Fact or Opinion activity cards
Slides 22 - 27: Teacher Page; Writing activities (story starters and personal narrative)

Slide 28: Thank You page! 

Here are some pictures of my students working through the stations today. They LOVED them! I was actually surprised and excited to see how quickly they were working, they wanted to badly to get to the next station!

Noun Sort

color-by-sound (long a and long i sounds)

I brought in skeleton and "My Body" books to add a Read to Someone Station

I wanted to add in technology (and some math) so here my students are playing a match/memory game.

I found this game on Interactive Education's blog. If you haven't heard of their blog, definitely check it out! Every day they share a fun educational game and website that can be easily added into your classroom when you have a few extra minutes, or if you are looking for an easy way to integrate technology into your stations!

Sunday Night Freebie!

Do you need something to perk you up on a Sunday night??! :)  

Here you go!

I started teaching my students about non-fiction text features last week and they LOVED it! I grabbed a bin of children's magazines from our school library and they had at it. We found bold text, illustrations, pictures, picture captions, maps, diagrams, labels... it was the most fun I have had teaching text features in a long time! 

So this week I want to take things a step further and have my students really think while they are reading informational text. 

I created two classroom posters and matching student bookmarks, and because it is Sunday night and we all have to go back to work in a few hours, I decided to make this a Freebie!

  

                       

                         

         

Included= 15+ activities and suggestions for introducing responding and chatting about Informational Text in your classroom! Enjoy!

Download the posters and bookmarks at my store for free! Follow my store to be the first to find out about other freebies I post!

Common Core Freebie!

I have been working on CCSS Math I can checklists, cards to post in the classroom, and assessments for over a week now. I am getting super close to having K, 1, and 2 finished!  Whew! It's more work than a I thought it would be. But they are turning out really cute! I am making Pirate theme sets and Insect theme sets.

A new blog-teacher-friend, Terri Paulson-Sasaki gave me the AWESOME idea to create matching Common Core Teacher Binder Covers. Thanks, Terri!

I put together a packet of editable Pirate and Insect Covers, and added them to my store for FREE :)

Here is a sneak peek!

Under the title is an editable text box for you to add your name, school year, grade, school, subject... whatever fancies you!  

Download them now for free!!

*wink! wink* I love LoVe LOVE feedback :)