Calendar Math – Launch into Learning
“The only way to learn math is to do math.” ~ Paul Halmos
A great way to start the day is with calendar math activities. These quick interactive sparks of learning incorporate a number of math concepts in a small amount of quality time. In a few minutes a teacher can introduce a new concept, reinforce skills, and extend math foundations that meet the needs of struggling learners as well as those who are in need of a challenge. This daily launch into learning engages the students and allows them to see concepts through diverse activities that stretch their thinking.
Here are a few calendar math ideas:
- Gather together at the calendar daily to explore. Find the day and mark it. This is the perfect time to delve into the days of the week, months of the year, or seasons and make connections between the patterns that we so often find when working with numbers and other math concepts.
- Graph the weather daily. This will allow the children to collect, examine, and display data over time.
- Have a daily count down. “How many days have we been at school? This is day number 46! We have 134 more days in this school year. Forty-six is a two-digit number. It has 4 tens and 6 ones.” Model the number with cubes or straws. Model the number with tally marks and write it out with words. Find the number on the hundreds board. “How many more ones will we need to make 50? What will 50 look like? Let’s count by 10’s to 50.”
- Celebrate a number of the day. “Today we will investigate a number that is 2 more than 10. It is 2 less 14. What is the number? It is 12! How many ways can you model the number 12?” One ten and two ones, 6 + 6 = 12, ************, 13 – 1 = 12, etc…” This activity allows children to brainstorm and share what they know. It can be done orally, recorded on a chart, in a class notebook, or written in individual math journals.
- Is the number of the day odd or is it even? “How do you know? Can you divide it equally. Show me.”
- Examine a fact family. “Today’s fact family is made up of the numbers 3, 6, and 9. How are those numbers related? If 3 + 6 = 9, then 6 + 3 = 9 too. We know that 9 – 3 = 6, so 9 – 6 = 3.”
- Explore a shape. Use mathematical language to describe it. “How many sides and how many vertices does it have? How is it like a square? How is it different? Is it a 2-dimensional or 3-dimensional shape?”
- Have a problem of the day. Read the problem together before ending your calendar math time. Challenge children to solve the problem sometime during the day. They must show their work with pictures, words, or numbers. (You might have a basket with paper and pencils available for students to record their answers and show their work if they accept the challenge.) You might also choose to have a mental math problem of the day that you can discuss as a group. Remind the children that different strategies can be used to find a solution.
These are just a few ways that you can hit a variety of math concepts in a short amount of time. To make the most out of your calendar math sessions, design and tweak the activities and questions to meet your specific goals. When done on a daily basis, the repetition allows students to build upon foundational skills. The questions that you choose to pose allow you to extend, challenge, or revisit concepts as needed. This interactive time allows children to feel safe to take risks, develops math vocabulary, and helps children see how the skills they are learning can be applied in a variety of meaningful ways. Once you have set the expectations for your calendar math meetings, you will find this can be a time to build the learning community in your classroom while you are extending the skills of your young mathematicians. Having fun learning is a great byproduct too!
“Mathematics may not teach us how to add love or minus hate, but it gives us every reason to hope that every problem has a solution.” – unknown