It's CALENDAR Time!

Today, I thought I would share my Calendar Time with you.  Here is a view from my rug of my Math Focus Wall.

 Here are my Odd and Even posters.

 This is a good place to put left and right.  We quickly hit on this each day as some of my students still get confused which one is which.

Here's the money section.  We do "My Shopping Trip" each day.  Of course, my students say it is not a "real" shopping trip if it isn't to the mall.  Now, mind you the closest mall is an hour away, so I'm not sure WHY they think this.  hahaha!!!

This is place inside a page protector as our laminator as been broken since school began.  They just ordered a new one today!!  YEEESSSS!!!!!  (I think only other teachers can truly appreciate how exciting that is!)

I ask the students if anyone went shopping yesterday after school, what they bought, how much it cost and then we make it into a math problem.  I have a lower math group, so we are only making change from $5.00 right now and just using increments of quarters for coins.  I then use my big magnetic money, take out a five dollar bill and put it on the rug in the middle of the rug.  Then we discuss what bills can be changed out for the five (five $1 bills), then we discuss that we need some coins and we swap 4 quarters for one of the dollar bills.  Then a student comes up and removes the cost of the item ($3.75), another student then counts back the change that is left. 

Currently, we are working on double-digit addition with no regrouping.  I want the students to start using mental math when appropriate, so we discuss breaking down the numbers by looking at the tens and ones.  We then add the tens, then the ones, then add the two numbers.  The Question of the Day will vary as needed.

To begin with the Place Value,  I ask a student to give a number between two numbers.  (Today, the question was a number between 20 and 30.)  This number is the first two numbers, you can then do the same for the last two numbers.  Practice reading the numbers.  We ran out of time due to an abbreviated schedule today, but you can also break the number down into abbreviated form.  BTW, the boards are simply two dry erase boards.  I use large clips purchased from the Dollar Tree and attached to the board by hanging on a push pin.  

The Number Line is inside of two page protectors (no laminator, remember?).  I change the numbers daily.  A number is given and the students must decide which number it should be rounded.  We will use numbers throughout the year up to 1,000.

These are the fractions we are working on right now.  Just a preview to get us ready for when we begin studying fractions.  These will change throughout the year and will also be shown on rectangles.

Our Shape Board.  We discuss # of sides, kinds of angles, and other features.

Here are a couple of freebies for you to add to your own board.  Click on the pictures to get them.