Interactive Calendar Time Routine for Kindergarten

If you’re a kindergarten teacher (or really, any lower-elementary teacher), then Calendar Time is probably part of your daily schedule. Incorporating a simple calendar routine into your day helps students begin to understand the basic concepts of time. The problem? It gets repetitive. Today I’m sharing a simple routine you can do all year long, PLUS tips to help keep it engaging and interactive for your little ones.

Start with a Song

We always start our calendar time with the Days of the Week song. *Teacher Tip: have your students stand up. Come up with VERY simple movements to do during the song (move your arms out to the side for each day of the week; clap your hands; etc). There are so many versions out there! Here are a few links to some fantastic Days of the Week songs on youtube:

• Days of the Week by Super Simple Songs
• Today is Sunday by Dr. Jean
• Days of the Week / Adams Family Theme by Dr. Jean

Yesterday was… Today is… Tomorrow will be…

After warming up with a song, use your classroom calendar to go over these important calendar skills:

• Yesterday – Using the calendar, find today and signal jumping back to yesterday. I like to make this pretty dramatic, to help them remember that yesterday came before today. We talk about how to find the day that yesterday was on the calendar and something we dd yesterday, to help them make that connection toward understanding.
• Today – Next use the calendar to talk about what day it is today. During this time you might talk about something you will do during the day.
• Tomorrow – Use the calendar to find the day it will be tomorrow. Make a connection by discussing something students will do tomorrow.

*Teacher Tip: Have students use the sentence frames “Yesterday was __; Today is ___; Tomorrow will be __” to help them develop past, present, and future tenses.

Months of the Year Song

Time to get up and moving again! As you know, kindergarteners need (and love) lots of little movement breaks. We stand up for another song. I labeled this one months of the year song, but you can switch it up some days, too! Just get up and get moving. Here are a few fun songs you might want to do during this time:

• 12 Months of the Year by Jack Hartmann
• 12 Months of the Year by The Learning Station
• Macarena Months by Dr. Jean
• 4 Seasons Song by Jack Hartmann

Weather

Time to talk about the weather! We have a “Meteorologist” as a class job. This student checks the weather outside and reports it by graphing it on a class weather graph.

Days in School

During this portion of calendar time, we count the number of days we’ve been in school using a ten frame chart. At the beginning of the year we count by ones, but as the year goes on we switch to counting by tens.

Math Skill(s)

Pick a math skill (or skills) to review/practice during this time. The possibilities for math skill practice are truly endless! Here are a few ideas:

• number identification
• subitizing – display a ten frame filled with a given number of dots, students have to state the amount
• coin identification
• mystery number – cover a number on a hundreds chart; students have to figure out what number is covered
• count to 20; 30; 50; 100 …

A few other tips and ideas…

• Make it even more interactive by giving the students a dry erase marker and white board
• Begin or follow up your calendar time with Morning Meeting. I prefer to start the day with morning meeting and end that portion of our schedule time with calendar.

I hope this helps you create a calendar time routine that you and your students love!