This January I decided to try something new during our calendar time with my 2nd grade kiddos…
Math Calendar Journals!!! And **OH MY** I'm in love! My dear ones are so involved and can do all the steps independently. Plus, I can easily check to see if they are "getting it" or not because we are constantly practicing those common core standards.
Here's a peek!
The packet comes with a cover page for each month. Here's January!
I have the kids start on the Calendar Journal while I walk around and check to see how everyone is doing. Then, as a class, we fill in the missing blanks. Here is what my board looks like so that the kids know what to fill in. I call it my "teacher worksheet!" It's laminated so that I can easily get it ready for the next day with a swipe! I also have a calendar and a wipe-on/wipe-off clock up that they use in their Calendar Journal.
Our first page in the packet is a freebie from Mrs. Unger. (Find it
here. I didn't included it in my packet online because… well, it's not mine!) On the first day we start the month journal my kiddos fill in the calendar month, year, and days of the week. Each day we revisit the calendar and write in the new day's number. Looks like we caught this little one in the middle of her "31." :)
Next, we do our "Today's Date is…" Page. As you can see, thanks to the snow and cold we didn't have very many school days in January this year!! :)
Next, we fill in the Clocks, Patterns (opps! forgot to take a picture of that!), and Money! In the future I plan to do more "word problem" type prompts with these.
For the number of the day, we identify the hundreds, tens, and ones place. We also review odd and even, word form, and expanded form. They LOVE the number sentence where they get to create a problem that equals up to the number of the day. They get creative!
And then the Math Journal! Sometimes I put up a "Problem of the day" other times, it's a "Prove how you know" or "Make a list" type prompt. We don't get to this everyday but I strive for once or twice a week.
By the end of our Math Calendar time, my "teacher worksheet" looks like this:
Full to the brim with learning! As I said before, my kiddos are soaring with this Calendar time and I love that we are able to touch on so many Second Grade Common Core Standards in this small block of 10-15 minutes.
Come Monday, we're on to our February Journal! The kids are so pumped and are eagerly waiting to see what the new monthly page looks like!
Hope you are enjoying the weekend!
Shayla :)
