Schedule spotlight series linky: Calendar time

I'm joining the party over at Castles and Crayons again this week for her schedule spotlight series.

This week the focus is on calendar. I did a post 2 years ago about my calendar routine. I'll be honest. I'm revamping this post a bit. (I'm on vacation and I was told I couldn't do any blogging while I was gone.)

I use my promethean board for morning meeting/calendar time. I love love love my morning meeting and calendar time with the kids. I think I love it so much because I use a flipchart that I'm really proud of. It is a combination of different ideas and trail and error and searching promethean planet for things that work for my kids. I love it because I can adapt to fit whatever my kids need. All I have to do is add another page.
When I first started teaching kindergarten, I wrote my morning message on a small white board and did my calendar time on a bulletin board. I had a good routine with them. I keep my students for two years. I have them in kindergarten and then first grade and by half way through first grade I was tired of my morning message and my kids didn't seem to need it. But by using my board, I don't get bored or tired of it. I love it!
Here's my morning meeting routine:
When they first come in they see a chart that has their routine for the morning. I use pictures of what they are suppose to do and the words. I saw this idea on Mrs. Wills blog and just adapted it to fit my needs (At lease I think that's where I saw it. I can't find it now). The students can see what they need to do. As they are working on their morning work at their table, they answer a question on the board. I started this year with their favorite color. They moved their name underneath a square of their favorite color. I started these graphs to help them recognize their names. The next one they do is if they are boys or girls. This starts to get them used to the yes/no format we use the rest of the year and they can "read" it themselves. Then they have a yes/no question they answer everyday. I use their popcorn words and different themes and concepts we're working on. I also use a lot of graphing and math concepts with this chart.
When morning meeting starts, we start with a Dr. Jean song I've embedded in my chart. Then we go over our rules which I got from The Polka Dot Patch.
Here's a list of the next slides:

• Morning message (I enjoy playing around with the backgrounds depending on the season and holdiays) I also try to include skills that we are working. We might brainstorm words that have our phonics rule, answer questions about science or social studies, or answer some math problems.
• Calendar
• Days of the week (Dr. Jean song embedded)
• Days we've been in school hundreds chart
• A tens and ones base 10 chart to show how many days we've been in school
• Months of the year (Dr. Jean song embedded)
• Weather (Dr. Jean song embedded)
• Season
• Temperature
• Patterns with shapes
• Number patterns
• 10 frame activity. Students make a number using the 10 frame. We start small and eventually build up to multiple 10 frames.
• In first grade, I add a page for a number of the day. They have to come up with an addition or subtraction problem that equals the number.
• In first grade, I also include review questions from different test resources

 . If you download my chart, I put notes in each slide to let you know what I do there. I love doing my morning meeting this way because we practice so many skills in math and in reading and writing. I try to include questions in my morning message and my question of the day that review our science and social studies themes.
I don't have the activeinspire software on this computer so I can't share any pictures. You have to have the activeinspire software to use this chart, but check it out here.
Here's my flipchart for download in google docs.
Be sure to head over to Castles and Crayons and join the party.