Most self-contained classroom schedules include calendar time. It is a time when students practice the functional skill of reading a calendar and making connections with the real world. This is also a great time to introduce math skills! In this blog post, I share how I teach calendar math in a self-contained classroom.
What is Calendar Math?
Calendar math is a routine that develops math skills using a calendar. In addition to learning the days, months, and year, math concepts that can be covered during this time include counting, number sense, and patterns.
How I Teach Calendar Math
There are many ways in which calendar math can be taught. Prior to starting calendar math, it is important to determine the math concepts that is appropriate for students in your self-contained classroom. Additionally, it is equally as important to make sure calendar math fits in your schedule as a daily routine. This allows math concepts to be practiced repeatedly and built upon itself. Below are three activities that I do when I teach calendar math in my self-contained classroom.
Number Sense
While establishing the date, we go through the days of the week, months of the year, and count out the date (e.g., 16 for February 16). In order to promote the math concept of number sense, we practice counting forward and backward.
Place Value
I also count the number of days in school during calendar time. I use tangible manipulatives to help students visualize place values.
Pattern Recognition
Calendar time offers a great opportunity to teach the math concept of patterns (e.g., ABAB, AABB, etc.). I assign an element of our pattern to each calendar day. For instance, in an ABAB pattern, I will alternate between a heart and a triangle each day of the month. As a class, we will discuss and predict the upcoming element in our pattern.
What else do you do during circle time?
Check out a circle time routine here.
Learn more about Calendar Worksheets.
Use Calendars alongside your students.
Preschool teachers: read this!
