Our district adopted Math in Focus three years ago at the elementary level and two years ago for our middle school. We quickly learned that there are some gaps in the standards and those gaps can be "filled" through the use of calendar math.
Our Kindergarten teachers have always known the benefits of using calendar for a learning tool, but what does it look like in our upper grades?
Calendar math can help to reinforce those everyday skills through repetition - like money, multiples, odd/even numbers, mental math, fractions and how about the meanings of numbers!
Sites to support the use of calendar in your math class.
Information taken from the book Numbers: Facts, Figures and Fiction
Morning Math Routines
Here are a few good blogs (with pictures) of teacher classrooms that implement calendar math.
Mrs Shannons -- this has several calendar downloads!
Mrs. Moorman's
The key take-away is questioning! Calendar is a perfect time to explore student thinking through posing open ended questions. This is also a time to encourage students to think, discuss, and share number strategies for mental math. Number Talks by Sherry Parrish is an excellent resource to get this started in your classroom.
Here are some general questions for calendar time.
Always ask - how did you know...?
If I add ___ and ___ together, what is my sum?
If I have a nickel and a dime, how much money do I have? (any money combinations)
What is ____ more than ___?
What is ____ less than _____?
This number has ____ tens and _____ ones. What number am I?
What is the difference between _____ and ____?
November 28, 2016
I recently videotaped a third grade classroom during their calendar time. Mrs. Moon has packets that mimic her calendar activities on the board. This allows all students to be involved and then rotates one student out to practice the place value portion of calendar time.
One section of calendar time includes fluency. Make sure you don't miss the section on the Basic Fact page that shows the various ways Mrs. Moon incorporates fluency into her classroom on a daily basis.
Our Kindergarten teachers have always known the benefits of using calendar for a learning tool, but what does it look like in our upper grades?
Calendar math can help to reinforce those everyday skills through repetition - like money, multiples, odd/even numbers, mental math, fractions and how about the meanings of numbers!
Sites to support the use of calendar in your math class.
Information taken from the book Numbers: Facts, Figures and Fiction
Morning Math Routines
Here are a few good blogs (with pictures) of teacher classrooms that implement calendar math.
Mrs Shannons -- this has several calendar downloads!
Mrs. Moorman's
The key take-away is questioning! Calendar is a perfect time to explore student thinking through posing open ended questions. This is also a time to encourage students to think, discuss, and share number strategies for mental math. Number Talks by Sherry Parrish is an excellent resource to get this started in your classroom.
Here are some general questions for calendar time.
Always ask - how did you know...?
If I add ___ and ___ together, what is my sum?
If I have a nickel and a dime, how much money do I have? (any money combinations)
What is ____ more than ___?
What is ____ less than _____?
This number has ____ tens and _____ ones. What number am I?
What is the difference between _____ and ____?
November 28, 2016
I recently videotaped a third grade classroom during their calendar time. Mrs. Moon has packets that mimic her calendar activities on the board. This allows all students to be involved and then rotates one student out to practice the place value portion of calendar time.
One section of calendar time includes fluency. Make sure you don't miss the section on the Basic Fact page that shows the various ways Mrs. Moon incorporates fluency into her classroom on a daily basis.