CALENDAR TIME

Morgan and I started our new tot school "curriculum" this week which focuses on a theme for the week that also incorporates a letter, number, shape and color of the week. I kinda made it up myself from borrowing and stealing ideas from a whole bunch of different sites and blogs. We also started a calendar time in the mornings. We do it right before she does her tot trays. Right now, it takes about 5-10 minutes, but I'll add stuff to it as she gets older and has a longer attention span. We've only done it two days, but so far, she loves it!

Here is our calendar board. I start off by having her put up the new number for the date. Then, she uses her special pointer to point to each number as we count them all. She can verbally count well to 13, then skips a few and says, "20!" But she only recognizes numbers 0-9. So, I am hoping that the repetition of this counting and pointing every day will help her count consistently to 20 and also to recognize the double digit numbers. Again, it's the daily repetition that is key. After counting the date, we sing our "Today Is...." song and our "Days of the Week" song together.

Then, we add a new paper clip to our board as we learn about patterns. I point to each clip and say the color in each row, and when it gets to the new one, I have her tell me what color we need. Then, she picks out the paper clip from a cup and puts it on. She thinks this is so fun. For now, I make each row on the board the same pattern, starting over each time at the beginning of the row. In first grade, we continued the pattern over the whole board, not starting over at each row. But I thought that would confuse Morgan.

After our clip patterns, we sit by our pocket chart and work on the color, number, and letter of the week. I take out the letter tiles spelling the color of the week and have her look at the word card to put the letter tiles in order (with my help of course as needed). Then, we use our special pointer and I say, "Good morning, red." (she repeats) Then, we do our color chant as we point to each letter. ( I do it first, and she repeats.) She really thinks the whole repeating thing is funny. Next, for our number, I help her trace the number with her finger as we say our "chant" for how to make the number. For instance, number one is "Pull straight down and then you're done. That is how you make a one." Next, we use buttons in the shape of the week to count out that number. This week it's easy with one. But she already has gotten the concept because she points to it and says, "One." Then stops and looks at me and says, "Just one." For our letter of the week, we take down the letter poster from our calendar board and we trace the letters with the pointer or our fingers and we sing the Leapfrog song from her fridge phonics toy that teaches the sound of the letter. Then, in the pocket chart, I have her tell me the letter and sound again and we add a new picture of something that starts with that sound.

And then, she sits in her little recliner as I read her a few books that go along with our theme of the week. Finally, we move to the computer and she gets to watch some kind of little video about the letter or number or theme of the week.