Friday, March 16, 2012

Morning Message/Calendar Time

Kindergarten Lifestyle
Hello! My name is Jeannie from Kindergarten Lifestyle and I am thrilled to be guest blogging for Caitlin today! Awhile back Caitlin asked me about how I do my calendar time. I mentioned to her that my calendar is on the promethean board - completely interactive for the kids. She thought others might be interested in seeing how I conduct it using this wonderful technology.
**Disclaimer - I do have a "real" calendar that we associate with what we see on the promethean board. However, I do not use a hard copy calendar set.**

Each morning we begin with a morning message. Now at the beginning of the school year, I write the morning message on the chart paper and we interact with the message from there. However, by October, I begin using the promethean board as a more interactive, engaging way to do our morning message. I type a message about our days. It could be that we go to the computer lab, it's picture day, or about the big storm that blew through last night. I keep the format pretty simple and standardized. I think this is important in kinder because they need to know what to expect from the morning message. It goes something like this:

                                                                                     March 13, 2012
Good Morning,

Today is Tuesday. We will get to go to the computer lab today. Do you like working on a computer? Why? I love computers!

love,
Mrs. Partin

Of course, I extend the message as the year goes on. I like to include questions and always have the children "turn and talk" about the question. Then we take turns using the magic pen and highlight letters, punctuation, word boundaries, or word wall words. This is a structured time kids love and expect each day. It's not exciting, but is an important routine in our day! And the kids WILL tell you if you mess it up!

Here's a picture of my morning message:
                      (This picture was taken in February - very festive....and this is actually my student teacher - Rebecca)

Next we move on to CALENDAR!
 This is where we read the student expectations before beginning calendar. It's hard to see, but she is actually holding up the expectations here. We recite it with the kiddos - and yes the kids LIKE reciting them!

 This is my "Months of the Year" page. We sing the months song. I record them singing it and play it as we sing along. Each month we move a little star to the new month to keep us on track!

This is the actual calendar. What do we do with this page?
1. Count the days in the current month
2. Extend our pattern for the month
3. Find the day (run our finger up to the day)
4. Sing Days of the Week song
5. Drag the days to today, yesterday, and tomorrow
6. Write the day in long form (written out) and short form (using numbers only)


 This is our weather graph page. I do not keep a running tab on weather for weeks at a time. I feel like the weather graph that they see when watching the weather forecast on the news is a week at a time. This is a more authentic way of seeing the weather.
We sing "What will the weather be?" from Dr. Jean. Then someone gets to come be the "Weather person" and drag the weather to the correct day. Finally, we read the graph -- "On Monday it was....., On Tuesday it was.... On Wednesday it is...." - good way to teach present and past.


 Here you see our "How Many Days Til 1st Grade" page. At the beginning of school we add one each day until we reach the 100th day of school. Starting on day 101, we start counting down until we become 1st graders! They love this and allows us to really start thinking about numbers that come before and after and those bigger numbers. We always talk about why we can't mix up the numbers. For example, this shows "63". We can't write a 3 and 6 because that wouldn't be 63.


This page is our birthday calendar. As each child has a birthday (or in some case - half-birthday), he/she gets to add their name in the color they choose. (This is a big deal for some reason! :0) And of course, we sing "Happy Birthday"!

Well, this is it! I hope you enjoyed seeing my calendar time! It is very routine - a routine the kids learn and love! Thank you for letting me share a special time in my classroom each day! 

If you like what you saw here, please come see me over at 
Kindergarten Lifestyle. I can't wait to see ya!!!

Currently I even have a wonderful Kinder-2nd grade linky party going on!! 

Kindergarten Lifestyle

30 comments:

  1. Mrs. Cupcake - my kids LOVE calendar time!

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  2. That's so cool! We never miss our morning meeting because of the reasons you mentioned - routine and structure. Mine isn't nearly as fun as yours though!

    Sara :)
    Smiling In Second Grade

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  3. I don't know much about Promethean, but I know my kinder kiddos are OBSESSED with calendar on my SMART Board each day. I love that you start with morning message. I end with morning message... hmmm... maybe I should change it up! :)

    Kim
    Carried Away in Kindergarten

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  4. I love to do morning message! So much valuable information in a short activity. :)
    Lori
    Conversations in Literacy

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  5. Awesome calendar time! I have an eno board. I wonder if I can make our calendar time as much fun.

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  6. Love this!!!! So many awesome ideas. I especially liked the week-long weather. That really does make sense!

    Marvelous Multiagers!

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  7. Jeannie, I have do calendar on the Promethean Board also. Did you create the actual calendar page or did you find a template on P. Planet? I love this calendar page and would like to use it.
    Thanks,
    Rose
    rlong56@hotmail.com

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  8. Love your calendar?? My students love using the promethean board. Do you have this calendar available for purchase?? I would love to use it!!

    Thanks,
    Autumn
    audi0921@yahoo.com

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  9. Hi Jeannie,
    I have the same question as rose and Autumn. Did you make up the template yourself? I have a projector attached to my computer at school and would love to make calendar more interactive like yours!

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  10. I love this! My K-team and I have been wanting to use our ENO boards more and would love to implement calendar time in this way. I am curious if you created this document and/or if it came with your smart board? I'd love to hear more information on it!

    Thanks!

    cabrown@tsc.k12.in.us

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  11. I have the same question as many others. I didn't see your response though. I am moving to kindergarten next year and would love to do calendar time with my active slate. Do you have your calendar available for free/or purchase on Promethean Planet? This is exactly what I've been searching for. Thank you,
    Katrina Upsahl
    stumpfkl@comcast.net

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  12. I am actually redoing my promethean calendar this summer and will have it ready in the next month.... I will see if Caitlin will allow me to post about it when it's finished :0)
    jeannie

    Kindergarten Lifestyle

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  13. I am expecting to get an IWB this fall and so I'm taking a look at some options and uses. Frankly I'm overwhelmed! Where do I begin? Are you using a program that came with the system? I understand our school is using ActivInspire (if that means anything to you.) I have never used one at all and just marvel at people who tap this and that and bring so many things into focus. I wondered how an IWB would fit into my room and still leave a meeting area. Then the lights came on and I said "Gail, you don't need the calendar and 100 chart to be the focus of the room. Turn things around!" See how far I have to go in wrapping my brain around this? Good thing I'm excited!

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  14. I am in love with this! I was trained how to do basic functions with Promethean Planet but have no idea how to actually make something like you have. I've been checking back all month, because you said you'd hopefully post your new version. I'm wondering if you've posted it yet or if your old version is still available? If so, what is it called so I can find it? Thank you,
    Katrina
    stumpfkl@comcast.net

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  15. Is this available for purchase on TPT?

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  16. I am very interested in buying this! I love it and so will my students! What are a few of your expectations?

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  17. is this available to purchase? I love all of the components! I have a Promethean Board and we use active inspire. I would love to use this! is it available on Teachers Pay Teachers or Promethean Planet? I'm not having much luck finding it.

    Thank you!
    Beckie

    rcomeau@sjs-webster.com

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  18. I have all of this info. visible in the room for children to retain, but I wonder if children will be able to do the same when they see the calendar information only during calendar math and morning meeting time. I my take down all and try it to free up a great dry erase board that could be used to teach other topics. Thank you.

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  19. Is this calendar time available for purchase? I would love to incorporate this into my classroom. I am not tech savy and I cannot create the flipchart to use in my own classroom

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  20. Hi! If you look at the top of this post, I didn't write it, I had a guest writer. Please contact Jeannie to see if it's available :) Thanks!!

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  21. is there any way I cant get this calendar?
    lmoreno615@gmail.com

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  22. This calendar is not mine, it was a guest post from another blogger :)

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  23. Hi Caitlyn,
    I just found your blog :)
    I was wondering because I do not have much space in my room for calendar and all the physical pieces for morning meeting. Do you have an actual calendar in your room? I love this and was thinking of changing the way I do things next year.

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  24. Hi!! I actually didn't write this post, Kindergarten Lifestyle did. However, I don't think she has this calendar available to purchase :( sorry!

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