Calendar Time Binders – Teaching Standards Whole Group

Two years ago I decided to make a change to my calendar time. It was scary territory and I invited you along for the adventure. What prompted this change? It was about the same time that I started teaching the majority of my day in small groups.

I decided to integrate calendar binders for four main reasons.

• So that my kinders will remain engaged
• So that my kinders will participate at a new level
• So that my “doer” kinders and my visual kinders will be able to draw on their strengths
• So that I know I am doing my best to meet the needs of all my kinders and challenge them at the same time

I began slowly my first year, and didn’t start until February. Then I started in August my second year. I learned to just roll out the parts slowly, setting the ground rules along the way.

Setting the ground rules sounds a little bit like. “What will you be writing, while I’m writing?” “How will you sit with your binder?”

I’ve found that for me, that the “calendar routine” is an outdated way of teaching today’s kindergarten. {totally just my opinion} Doing the exact same thing everyday becomes unnecessary.

They grow, so should calendar time.

Calendar time has now become my whole group math time. Students have a set of pages in their binders, matching the general level of students and our common core standards for the quarter.

Setting Up Binders

I like to use a set of sturdy dividers so I can break up the sheets we place into the binders and it also helps with switching categories (like from decomposing to weather) for students. I also recommend using sheet protectors in place of laminating.

The pages are in sheet protectors since they can use them daily with dry erase markers, make mistakes and they are easy to pass out/collect when we’ve outgrown them.

They can follow along with your matching calendar wall, or you can put your own teacher calendar binder under a document camera. I did it both ways! (I began before we had an ounce of technology in my classroom)

Hitting Standards

We do have a monthly calendar page that doesn’t go in a page protector. They color a pattern and fill in the date.

Students grow from watching me step by step to doing this portion of the calendar practically by themselves.

There comes a point when I’m just checking in asking students to explain their thinking and discussing strategies for figuring things out.

This is about as “calendar-ish” as the time we have our binders out gets for us.

Then we dive into practicing other math standards, focusing on number sense, composing/decomposing and operations.

We use ten frames to discuss numbers, pull a number from our hundreds chart (but start with 11-19 to match our standards) and compose/decompose those numbers by first adding quick dots to create the number using ten frames with a marker and then writing about the groups of tens and ones.

This is a daily activity that grows from making to composing/decomposing with words, pictures and equations. I’ve made at least 3 pages to work on this concept and grow through it.

We work on fluency for addition and subtraction, do word problem solving, handwriting, subitizing and having the materials all ready to go offers me variety in what I teach. I am able to give lots of time for students to show their thinking and also explain it to others.

Any day I can pick up number cards or dot cards and we can use them to practice our skills but in a fun new way.

With new life breathed into my “calendar” {ahem whole group math} time and having met my four goals better this is a classroom activity that’s going to stay on my agenda.

Calendar Binder Time Tips

Here are my top tips that have made doing calendar binders in kindergarten successful. They are simple, but took me a little while to figure out.

1. Kinders need to have a dry erase marker and sock {eraser} in their pencil boxes to bring to the floor.
2. Space to spread out makes this time more relaxed.
3. Edifying strategies and thought process helps others try similar strategies.
4. Don’t be afraid to change it up!
5. Sheet protectors are way easier and hold up longer than lamination. Also easier to replace.

Get the Calendar Binder Math Pages

It was brave new territory, but I’m glad I took the adventure! You won’t find me ever going back to teaching the calendar the old school way.

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