Calendar Math and The First Week Back

Aloha everyone!  This was Back To School week and I was bracing myself for the sheer exhaustion that I usually feel even after the first day.  But I didn't actually feel really tired until Thursday night.  It all caught up to me and I was asleep on the couch by 8:00 before my own daughters has even gone to bed!!

I wanted to share some fun pics from the week and also address my Calendar Math time, since I had a few questions about it this week.

Okay so this picture is not so fun, but I had to share.  This is a Cane Spider and I absolutely hate them!  They freak me out and they move so fast.  They also jump!  If you have ever heard a scream from a horror film movie mine would probably be similar when I see these! I calmed myself long enough to take a picture.

I posted my first day of school activities on Tuesday and I had a few questions about my Calendar Math time.  This calendar set was purchsed from Lakeshore. 

After lunch my kiddos come in from recess and we start math.  They sit on the carpet in front of our calendar.  We do the date together and read it out loud.  We discuss whether the date is odd or even and tell how we know. I have it color coded for now-yellow is odd, blue is even.

Then we talk about the number of the day.  I am sticking with days in school to help remind me.  I asked students to tell me number sentences for 1.  I write down all of their answers.  You can tell right away who your math whizzes are!

We also color in our hundreds chart to match.

Below the calendar I have this chart.  I believe I purchased this from Really Good Stuff.

If there is time we will go over one of these story problems that is included with this calendar set.

Finally I pick a skill that we are working on and we review it.  This week is skip counting by two's to help us with odd and even number.  Then I start my regular math lesson.

The first Friday of every school year I have the students bring in a piece of fruit and we make a fruit salad to kick off learning about life cycles of plants and animals.

Finally I make sure I take lots of pics to remember what we looked like on the first day of school.  I will be using these for their Surfer Of The Week books.

One last reminder about the Educents deal that is taking place right now.  You have one more day to purchase this Amazing deal!  I have already purchased and have been prepping some of these great products.  

Just click on the picture to take you to their site!